JOTUN: IN THE DUP WE TRUST
by Read Rabbit
Summary: "Those who escape hell, however, never talk about it, and nothing much bothers them after that."-Charles Bukowski She didn't think she would be anything other than ordinary, didn't think they would lock her up for being a conduit. She didn't think Augustine would train her to kill her own kind. But she definitely didn't expect to be dumped in Seattle at the feet of her next target.
1. Prologue I

****REVISED CHAPTER RE-POSTED 7/12/17**

 **-I changed up a few things hopefully in better taste, hopefully everyone likes it. Nothing too major, same lines and sequences.**

 **AN:**

 **Disclaimer I own nothing.**

 **The title is up in the air, it was originally** **Pink Floyd's** ** _Do You Think You can tell_** **, but I haven't bothered to write anything in years and can't find the right fit for this story yet. So please be gentle and forgive the lack of structure and the confusing nature of my horrible writing style.**

 **! This will start off as snippets of a broken timeline to set the mood of the story. I hope it will help you better understand the main character's perspective, thoughts, and actions hopefully… Without further to do, let's starts this bitch up! Wuba Luba Dub Dub!**

Summary: "Those who escape hell, however, never talk about it, and nothing much bothers them after that."-Charles Bukowski She didn't think she would be anything other than ordinary, didn't think they would lock her up for being a conduit. She didn't think Augustine would train her to kill her own kind. But she definitely didn't expect to be dumped in Seattle at the feet of her next target.

* * *

 **~oOo~**

Inspirational song for this chapter by **_Norman Greenbaum_** _ **"Spirit in the Sky"**_

 _When I die and they lay me to rest_  
 _Gonna go to the place that's the best_  
 _When I lay me down to die_  
 _Goin' up to the spirit in the sky_  
 _Goin' up to the spirit in the sky_  
 _That's where I'm gonna go when I die_  
 _When I die and they lay me to rest_  
 _Gonna go to the place that's the best_

* * *

 ** _Curdon Cay: Sometime in the near future_**

Buried deep under thick walls of concrete and steel within the underground facility, the 'prison ward' has one steel lined vault door, and an small air vent that slowly blows stale air into the enclosed space. The soft whir of the overhead light echoes throughout the room as small drops of water stream out of the cracked ceiling, down the side of the wall, onto the corner of an old well-worn twin mattress. The room's only occupant lightly taps to its music on the material of their clothing. The clothes scratch their back when they drag themselves to their side and grunt uncomfortably. This is not unusual. Since the beginning of their stay, this guest hasn't been allowed the luxury of small comforts, seeing as the benefactors of her capture were more interested in her molecular structure than giving the subject of study anything more than a musty mattress with sharp springs poking into her side.

 _It wasn't always like this, was it? I can barely remember..._

Thinking of the past brought back that familiar ache in her chest and scowled rubbing there harshly. It better not to feel _anything._

Emotions made her _sick_. They would squirm their way around her chest, then into her stomach, and finally out through her mouth with that morning's meal onto the cold concrete floor.

 _Although it could just be the shit they shot me up with_ , she mused.

A long tendril of hair fell into view before another large clump followed, and she quickly with practiced precision placed they hair behind their head. Long hair was always a hassle it seemed. It had been a while since she last had a proper shower and groom, other than the off chance they shaved a chuck or two off. No matter, the length was a matted mess, and was beginning to get on her nerves. An itch tried to dig itself into the forefront of her mind.

 _Perhaps they would shave it off if you asked_ _nicely_ she jested to herself. She shoved it off with a shake of her head, trying her best to ignore the soft scratching in the back of her skull.

It's been a while since the last meal drop, or the last anything.

 _Definitely the drugs then._

To put it lightly, it's been 18,653...4...5 drops since the slot above the steel door was last opened. And 85,703 drops before that the guard dragged her broken and bruised arse back into her cell. Time was just another comfort lost to her. It had been too long to remember what days and weeks felt like. Sometimes a month was just a moment, and then a moment turned into a lifetime. But much to her dismay and amusement 697,849 drops ago the ceiling cracked and time monopolized her thoughts like Rockefeller with Standard Oil.

 _Fuck this is boring._

Seriously the waiting was killing her. When were they gonna drag her out for more torture, tests, hazing her with more pain than she ever perceived to be possible? _Time was a bitch_ , she thought. It was making her edgy, well more so than before when she just accepted the inevitability of torture instead of hedging off anticipation into oblivion

 _Just another day I suppose._

...

After a _prolonged_ period of time to herself, they gave her what the guards, doctors, scientists, etc. ( _they're all the same here really)_ call a "bath". They have never cared about the overall cleanliness of their test subjects, (and there were others she assumed after she tried to count their screams, but lost count when the screams never ceased to echo in her skull) but she would say it was something more along the lines of being exposed to harsher temperatures and pushing the limits of their bodies, or hers in particular she thought. She suspected that the scientists were growing bored when they held her under for longer periods of time, but the shocks were new. They burned their insides and blackened her fingernails. Screaming wasn't possible when your lungs filled up with water and your lips turned blue.

The spectators finally got what they wanted as her eyes burned something fierce making her already blurry vision fucking _hurt._ The muscles in her limbs ached and cramped tightly as she bit the inside of her cheek open. Another pulse of energy ran through her system as she struggled against the gurney's metal bars caging her, and blood stained the water as it leaked from her mouth, and even _more_ slowly her _eyes_. One of the technicians panicked as the water's temperature began to rapidly decline as the subject continued to trash and bend their strongest constraints. The girl's heart rate had skyrocketed as the surrounding glass frosted over and swallowed her visage whole. He stole his gaze from the subject to his superior monitoring from his glass box above, and cried into the mike hanging off his ear.

"Sir! The subject's physical is beginning to strain our equipment! All systems are shutting down or offline Sir!" He and the other techs on in the room were running across the lab floor from display to display as each screen flickered to black, and walls and floor surrounding the tank cracking under its overwhelming weight.

"The subject is out of control!"

"We need to get out of here!"

He couldn't wait for an order.

"Shut all Power down NOW!"

The technician never received a response when someone flipped the breaker switch and they were submerged in darkness; seconds later the whir of the backup generator sounded as the red emergency lights flickered over the lab's only exit. He rushed to the door's card-access only scanner swiping his pass with so much force his knuckles bled as they rapped against the metal over and over.

"COME ON WORK DAMN IT!"

He banged his fist on the door, kicked, and yelled to anyone that could hear him to let them out but received no answer. He could hear the others both pleading and cursing their benevolent god who watched from his throne above through a pane of glass, but they only continued to watch in sick amusement. The sound of muted cracking and groaning metal pierced the air like a sharp knife, louder than any bomb to their ears. They all turned and watched the low red light casting a foreboding shadow across the tank's icy interior-

 **A hand pressed against the glass**

The tank exploded with shafts of twisted metal and frost, debris flew towards them at alarming speed as they tried to take cover where they could. Screams of terror washed over the room like a tidal wave when the impact hit the foundation columns and tons of rock gave way over their heads. Some braced themselves whilst others were simply crushed by the onslaught of broken machinery. Climbing out of the debris, miraculously the technician had somehow made it out pushing his way out with a few scratches and a dislocated shoulder.

 **Out of the corner of their eye she step out from the shadow**

The cowering puddle of human filth ran towards the sealed doors, key card dropped carelessly on the floor before clawing his nails against the seams in desperation. She just kicked away a broken slab of concrete in her path as she walked over the broken bodies on the floor, soft lines protruding from her skin slowly curling around the contours of their face and limbs. The man slammed his uninjured side into unforgiving metal in desperation when he was lifted by the lapels of his collar to only see blood red sclera eyes and white hair fanning the sides of **_its_** face.

His neck made a sickening crack before his corpse was deposited at her feet. Reaching down she nabbed the card from wet _sticky_ fingers, before sliding it through the scanner. She frowned as the doors remained sealed. Looking around she took notice that the rest of the crew had been buried by the assault, but with a gleam in her eyes she conceded that the heavy body of a dearly departed cockroach could lend a limb or two. The door fell apart quite easily after that. The frozen corpse made a nice battering ram she jested as she walked with a jig in their step as she made her way down the hall.

As she rounded a corner, an assault team rushed her. One of the soldiers tried to hit her with a baton, she grabbed its middle and vaulted her legs around their neck, and severing the spine with a sharp _twist_. Three others aimed guns at her and fired, the bullets leading a frozen trail to the poor bastards, turning them into human popsicles before they could even blink twice.

All too suddenly another team doled out her punishment- the flash-bomb temporarily blinding her vision, the smoke dulling her senses and weakening her muscles, building her immediate panic but all too late. Her powers reaction time was too slow for the syringe of cerulean blue fluid descending into the back of her neck.

 _And then everything went black._

...

* * *

 **AN:**

 **This story will have some pairings both canon and AU - and not exclusively with the OC, but a LOT will change as it continues and suggestions and requests are always available for this story or maybe a short one-shot on the side. Just PM or leave a comment in the make my day box with a small back story or reasoning for whatever you want; I'll consider it promptly and get back with you. Note that the romance genre isn't the focal point of this story (and hopefully a series in the future) I plan to exercise enough angst and mental breaks as much as I can across the board, so please don't hold out for it or keep your hopes up. Though I do promise to at the very least** ** _try_** **to add some fluff now and again ***** ** _smiles painfully***_**

 **I want this to be nothing short of a suspenseful plot twisting feature with sour outcomes and tragic endings. Happy endings just don't appeal to me anymore as much as seeing people change in their actions, beliefs, and the views of their little world(s).**

 **See you guys next time!~**


	2. Prologue II

****REVISED CHAPTER RE-POSTED 7/12/17**

 **-I changed up a few things hopefully in better taste, hopefully everyone likes it. Nothing too major, same lines and sequences.**

 **But no one is following my work yet so it's mostly there to make me feel better.**

 **AN:**

 **This is the continuation of the first prologue, same rules apply.**

 **I own nothing.**

 **And if you want a clearer picture of who I had in mind for the doctor in this chapter (He will be mostly tied to just the OC and not the main Infamous characters- but he does work for Augustine and the DUP that much is clear), think of Petyr Baelish from** ** _Game of Thrones_** **. He's kind of a dick like that :)**

Summary: "Those who escape hell, however, never talk about it, and nothing much bothers them after that."-Charles Bukowski She didn't think she would be anything other than ordinary, didn't think they would lock her up for being a conduit. She didn't think Augustine would train her to kill her own kind. But she definitely didn't expect to be dumped in Seattle at the feet of her next target.

* * *

 _Fire and Ice_

 _BY ROBERT FROST_

 ** _Prologue Part II_**

 _Some say the world will end in fire_

...

Perhaps she was being punished for killing most of the staff, of course it wouldn't matter, they would just be replaced. A new mind will think up new and crueler ways to hurt her, but it was better to cooperate for the time being. All that matters is how long her usefulness and curious nature will appease the higher authority, and then at some point even that will run out. If it hasn't already, she suspects. Scientists are like children, once something captures their attention they will pick apart the pieces and squabble over what belongs to who. But everything has an expiration date, and once the experiments fails it is considered complete. After that everything is filed away, and the evidence cataloged and stored away before they find a new fancy that garners their attention.

It's important not to fail their curiosity. Aster must always work hard to impress her keepers, failure is not an option. Because the perfect experiment never ends and she will do whatever it takes to stay alive.

…

 _Some say in ice._

 _…_

She woke up in her cell, her muscles protesting as she tried to gain leverage against the wall to stand. Her neck throbbed. She swiped her tongue from the roof of her mouth over her lips she could swear she could taste an all too familiar metallic flavor. _Shit_. Her knees weak she stumbled and slid down to the floor hitching her breath as her used and bruised body ached tremendously. The last couple hours slowly came back to her.

…

 _From what I've tasted of desire,_

 _I hold with those who favor fire._

 _…_

More drops passed, the puddle on the mattress was nearly a lake when the sound of heavy metal protesting its own movement flooded the room and the large door was swung outward.

…

 _But if it had to perish twice,_

 _…_

Five guards swarmed the room before two split off from the herd to guard the entrance and the others threw her against the wall, head hitting the rock with a crack; a loud buzz roared in her ears and her eyesight had gone blurry again. A wave of vertigo washed over Aster as they fastened three-inch thick steel cuffs at her wrist in the middle of her back, before a sharp stab of the needle on the back of her neck involuntarily made her body jerk away. Next, the third guard took out his baton and struck the middle of their back once, and then twice again before they deposited her against the unforgiving wall only held up by One and Two. Soon the sound of metal scrapping loudly reached her ears before she was lifted from her feet and deposited in a chair. She numbly felt cold metal bars pin her down along her neck, forearms, chest, waist, and ankles. Humoring the guards, she made a show of struggling some more against the restraints when once again another blow knocked her head back and turned her vision white.

"Stay where you are freak." Hissed number two. His annoyance showed in the pulsing vein in his neck and in the growing vessels in his eyes. He tightened his gripped on his mall cop baton when she hadn't acknowledged his remark, but chose to lick her bloodied lips and stare absently into florescent lights above.

…

 _I think I know enough of hate_

 _…_

Whatever that shot was it is kicking in. Everything slowly was turning numb, the oppressive feeling of submerged in water pressed on her shoulders so much so that her neck gave out to the new weight. That itch in the back of her skull was coming back full force, she ground her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut trying to will the feeling away, but it pressed back with a vengeance making all attempts at suppressing it unsuccessful. An agitated grunt left her mouth when another figure entered the cell. Like most of the academics', he wore a pristine white lab coat over what she could imagine was a really expensive tie. His greying hair took nothing away from his diamond hard eyes that were just as sharp as the scalpel pressing harder into your abdomen. This particular "doctor" had easily made it on her bad side. He liked to play games, the kind that make you hurt. Of course she played her fair share, but in here he was the game maker and they both knew it. She knew that she would mostly die by his word if she didn't play all of his games so god damn well. She was sure it amused him and would gladly give into the challenge if it meant her freedom. But still, like a things in this hellhole, he was best to ignore until he was unavoidable.

Just another itch.

…

 _To say that for destruction ice_

 _Is also great._

…

 _And would suffice._

She didn't have to look up to notice his attention- or lack thereof, was in the file in his hand. So she sat patiently in the chair letting the florescent bulbs burn holes into the backs of her retina, black spots filling her vision. The two sat there for extended period of time ignoring the other presence focused on their own tasks until the other would crack. She sighed internally. This was boring to say the least. She guessed he would come, order the guards to beat her for a couple minutes to observe her regeneration rate, have one of his underlings operate right there so they could study her anatomy in live-action, torture, starvation, maybe even try drowning her again- though that didn't work out so well for them last time. This man was not capable of empathy or in the mood to just hang out, so whatever the hell he was up to was not good and it began to unnerve her immensely.

Wringing her wrists in the restraint she popped her joints and she waited.

And waited.

Waiting...

He continued to flip his material but in the corner of her eye began to twitch from overexposure to light. If he had noticed it didn't acknowledge it.

She had counted back from one thousand three times in rough high-school French before she braved another look at the man. He met her eyes and chuckled when she hurriedly looked away. He cleared his throat before sliding the file across the table to her side as if she were privy to the information inside its pages, it was too bad she couldn't open the damn cover.

"Your resilience never ceases to amaze me Aster" He to his silver-blue frames off his face and wiped them with the tail of his coat. This was just a gesture used frequently to relax the situation to appear more human but she was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. She remained quiet, but continued to gaze at the eye candy just inches away from her face.

"Hmm? Do you want to know what's in the file?" His eye crinkled in mock kindness "I could tell you if you want, it is about you after all." He leaned forward resting his face on the palm of his hand, like he was going to spread the latest gossip. "I heard all kinds of rumors about you, you know? You made quite the ruckus a few days ago." His poor attempts at this conversation were almost amusing but she remained quiet; he would have to work harder than to elicit a response from her.

He took back the colored folded paper, and read aloud bits of information.

"Showed a great promise early on in the experiment with more potential than we ever expected. Patient Aster Juliette Coulson is a growing perfection with unprecedented capabilities, evolving at an alarming rate." Two lips pulled back revealing perfectly white teeth. "Subject Coulson has recently possessed a high degree of animosity toward authority figures, particularly those of the male gender in closed quarters with the risk of physical contact." That was only one time. "Uncontrollable outbursts of violence during testing proceedings of a systematic manner suggest higher level of thinking and hope of escape."

He looked back up and they met his gaze with a raised brow. Did they seriously think that she wouldn't take an opportunity like that? This wasn't new. She had tried to escape many times, but every scenario had a new twist, turn, or unexpected obstacle, and any hope of freedom was quickly turning into a sick illusion.

Then he smiled once more.

"The patient's status is in question of permanent termination"

She was quiet.

"Well what do have to say for yourself Miss Coulson?" It was rhetorical, he has never heard her speak up even _once_ during their sessions, so why now right?

He stood back up and circled around the room, much like a shark in a tank. And like any good fish, she pretended to ignore his existence, but always kept him within their eyesight waiting for the monster to strike.

As he turned his back to her she canted her head to the side.

"Well then I guess it's my lucky day then, right Doc? Whatever deal you're here to propose is my second chance or whatever."

His shoulders strained when she cackled a bit and begun to outright laugh, "You're a riot you know that? You tie a girl up, put her in a hole, and throw away the hole with the added bonus of human experimentation and torture for the DUP's sick pleasure."

His posture remained ridged, but gave away nothing as he gestured to the guards with a wave of his hand, one by one they filed out the door, the doctor taking the file from the table, closing it with a sharp _SMACK_ , before he follow in suit.

Just over the threshold he cast a look over his shoulder, "Rest assured, all in the best interests of this country Miss Coulson."

He paused.

"But only you can decide if _they_ can be in the best of _yours_."

The cell door slammed shut with a resounding bang of heavy steel.

She sighed.

And then loudly cursed when she realized those assholes left her tied to the chair.

* * *

 **AN: Soo neither Augustine nor Delsin made an appearance yet, but patience my friends, it's all in good time. Chapter three will have a familiar face for you to feed on, and maybe I'll also throw in another infamous character or two for fun.**

 **I'm lucky even to be awake this late with my exhausting work hours as it is. But writing this is more fun than sleeping so I'll leave it there.**

 **Chapter III: Forewarning it will be a jump backwards in time...**

 **If anyone is reading this, reviews are love. Reviews are life.**

 **Bye~**


	3. Chapter I: Stranded

**POSTED 7/12/17**

 **AN:**

 **Just sitting here in my pom-pom beanie typing away the time. Very slowly, ugh. Enjoy!**

 **DISCLAIMER**

 **I. OWN. NOTHING.**

 _Summary: "Those who escape hell, however, never talk about it, and nothing much bothers them after that."-Charles Bukowski She didn't think she would be anything other than ordinary, didn't think they would lock her up for being a conduit. She didn't think Augustine would train her to kill her own kind. But she definitely didn't expect to be dumped in Seattle at the feet of her next target._

 **These** '...' **are scene changes. Most of the time, sorry.**

 **RATED T FOR LANGUAGE, I MIGHT BUMP IT UP TO M FOR SENSATIVE CONTENT LATER ON.**

* * *

 _"One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from bring its characters" – Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five_

* * *

...

 **Three years before Seattle**

...

 _Checking Account Balance $0.00_

No cash. Perfect.

Aster desperately could use some at the moment, she rubbed her hands together as she climbed into her pre-owned run-down car, with the broken heater apparently.

"Another thing to fix", she grumbled as she turned the key in the ignition switch and listened to the engine rumble loudly to life and spit smoke out the other end. Pulling out of the motel parking lot, she slowly rolled her way into morning rush-hour traffic to her new part-time job as a waitress.

What a fucking dream come true, she thought.

In school, everyone dreamed of what they could be and set out to make those dreams come true. Whelp, everyone except her. Aster just barley scrummaged enough pity from the counselor to avoid the truancy courts, and then spent the rest of her time as a part-time in-and-out resident of the Health and Behavior Hospital for Troubled Youths in the next town over. Missing out on the state tests and SAT hampered her chances for collage, but she finally said fuck-it, dropped out, and got her GED instead.

 _ **"Breaking News: The second bank robbery this month erupts into total chaos as known bio-terrorist Hank Daughtry shoots out with the local police force with five dead and thirteen woun-"**_

She turned down the radio and began to lightly rub her temples to try to assuage her growing headache. She didn't want to hear the world's problems right now, she had enough to deal with on her own thank you very much.

The cars ahead of her sat begrudgingly on the asphalt in crowded lines due to what she could guess were idiots probably looking at an accident on the other side of the road. She dropped her shoulders and sagged in her seat as she banged her ash blonde covered head against the wheel.

"ARGH DAMINT."

She was going to be late again! This was the third time this happened in the past week and she just knew her boss was itching to lay in on her. She was only nineteen and had to grow up a lot faster than she thought she would, but your credibility was taken at face value, and a teenager drifting from job to job with nothing to show for it was a hard sell at to those HELP WANTED posters.

The car in front of her finally inched forward and she praised whatever higher power that existed that she may be on time.

...

The hostess greeted her with a plastic smile that quickly sloped into a grimace. Aster smiled innocently back at her as she made her way behind the diners small bar area, securing the apron around her waist with two knots. She covertly dialed her passcode into the clock-in device and made her way back to the front to seat her section by the front. She ignored the way the hostess narrowed her eyes and lifted a brow, the un-spoken words 'late again?' hung in the air. It was a couple hours before lunch would start, so unfortunately her section was empty and she had no choice but to talk to the woman who could put Clint Eastwood's scowl to shame.

Aster turned to her with a mocking smile, "you know if you keep it up, your face could permanently freeze like that", she jeered.

The hostess, whose name tag read Deborah, pursed her thin painted rouge lips, and turned her head away with a swish of her neat blonde highlights. "The boss wants a talk with you. Maybe we'll be rid of your unnatural tendencies' of tardiness and that horrid mouth of yours." She gestured with kissing the cheap faux gold cross. It hung just above the crest of her low riding V-neck shirt, and she continued to adjust the position of her collar to flaunt what should have been considered expired before Aster was born.

Trying not to vomit, Aster nodded mutely and whispered to herself, "With that view, you and me both lady."

…

Aster stormed out of the establishment, the entrance's glass door, vibrating from her raging impact swung open allowing the crisp colorado air to flood her nostrils. She makes a run to her car, rummaging theough her purse for that elusive pack of nicotine filled stress relievers.

 _This kind performance is unacceptable he says. No other place would have you he says, that we'll just have to improve your performance, he gloated._

 _He ran his revolting appendages down her shoulders with his greasy hair hanging near her face. His body odor invaded her senses and she rejected the strong urge to gag._

 _Like_ HELL _she was going to take part in that shit show._

 _She made her answer clear enough with a well aimed kick between the legs before she booked it out of there._

 _Shit where are they?!_ She fumbled some more, but failed to calculate the distance between herself and the vehicle with her face stuffed into her bag; she collided into the rear passenger side door, watching helplessly as her purse flung out its contents onto the wet pavement. She growled loudly in frustration and anger and kicked her bag causing its items to scatter further down the parking space. Kneeling down she clawed for her possessions greedily and threw them back into the dinged purse, groaning once more when she found a damp container empty of life's little joys. Grabbing her bag and keys securely a second time, she hopped into her rust bucket and peeled away to the closest gas station.

Thankfully the town was small enough that she was locking her car door and running to the counter within minutes, waiting impatiently in line as the attendee fumbled with what appeared to be a broken coffee maker. She cleared her throat to get his attention and smiled tursely when his head swung her direction with dramatic flair and eyes wide in surprise.

"OH! I didn't hear ya com'n mam. What can I getcha today?"

She gestured to the counter, "Just the cheapest pack you got back there, and make it fast." Her agitation leaking into her speech and scaring the poor lad even further.

He raised his hands over his shoulders, trying to hide his fear of people behind his sympathetic tone.

"Don't worry Mam, no judgin'. I getcha, we're all having tough times." He walked back to the case. The TV in the top corner above the register was set to the local news channel, a mug shot -who was she to judge- of Caucasian man with a clean shaven head and several tattoos displayed with one of those police hotline numbers displayed below his name Ha- Her attention was diverted after the attendee returned from the unlocked the case and pulled out a red carton with a small illustration. Turing back to the counter he rang her up whilst continuing with more bravado, "Hey, I haven't seen you 'round before. You new to town?"

She didn't have to mentally roll her eyes at his fishing tactics and simply stated, "No, but I'm _leaving_." She grabbed her items as the employee stumbled from her retort, and whisked her way to her car as fast as she could.

...

Driving towards her home, Aster mulled over her words. She could feel that she meant it. _Really_ meant it. She had been ready for this moment before 'quitting' her job, hell even the last three jobs before that too. What she needed was a fresh start outside of this town. She had very little baggage and nothing but near poverty tying her down there, she thought, and she'd better leave before she's swallowed up and spat out of the shithole. She needed a plan. She just needed a little money-

She was jolted out of her train of thought by the sputtering of her engine, her eyes roving over the shaking dashboard to the little blinking light over her gas mileage.

"No no no no no nonono..." She pleaded to the meter to stay above empty, feebly pressing the gas peddle to the floor as the car rolled to a stop.

"Fuck. Fuck. _FUCK_!"

She screamed into the sleeves of her jacket. Her frustration at its peak she threw open he door climbed outside and began kicking the good for nothing car siding with tears in her eyes. "ARGHH" she screamed into the mountain air. "GOD FUCKING DAMINT." Emotionally and physically exhausted she slid her butt down the rear of the car, elbows meeting her knees half-way, with her head in a down cast position. Taking another moment to herself, she breathed deeply in and out, the mantra everything is okay, everything is going to be just fine running over and over in her head, desperately trying to regain some self control.

 _Everything is okay._

 _Everything is okay._

 _It's just fine._

 _Just got to figure out what my next fucking move is._

 _Why did this happen to me?! Of all days!_

 _Nope, no self pity- you gotta just get up and move forward._

 _It's all about survival. Just gotta get up._

 _GET UP DAMNIT!_

She raised her head from her forearms letting her eyes wander above the all pine trees to the blue sky, dusty clouds floating thousands and miles above her head. She sat there for quite a while, becoming numb to the situation letting everything go in this rare tranquil moment that most let just pass on by without a single thought. She dazed at each cloud analyzing the shapes the would form, each noise the rusting brush of the trees and dead grass would make in the breeze, every small crack that would come from deeper within the woods made by whatever wildlife that lingered there. Maybe they were watching her, waiting for her alien self to invade their world further than she already has. It was 'whatever', she let out a small breath, she had her moment. She fumbled as she tried to straighten to the human upright position, but resembling an old crouching bear more than anything. Her joints popped and she rubbed her sore backside, sitting on cold dirt wasn't all what the hippies made it out to be she mused. But hey, now she calmed down enough to think logically about what her next step would be. If she walked back the way she came she could go back to that shoty gas station, find the nearest payphone, and call AAA to get a tow.

 _But she had no money._

What little she had, she used to previous day for rent and well, living expenses you could say, and she hardly had enough cash on hand to break a five much less the towing cost. She raised her arm to scratch the back of her head stalking around in a circle to face the other direction towards her so called dwelling. She lived closer to the city where her bank was than to her recent hunting ground in the job market. Maybe if she could walk that far, she could make a withdrawal- if she had any money left in there, which she severely doubted, or option three she could apply for a small cash loan enough to get on her feet, and get the hell out of dodge. A slim chance it was, but the idea was sounding better by the minute...

She groaned as the back of her shoes rubbed painfully against her ankles, _it's a really far walk..._ But it was getting closer to mid day and if she didn't want to become a bear's home ready-dinner by night fall, then she had better get going.

...

 **AN:**

 **And end scene. It's 4 am and I'm dying here, trying to revise all of the previous chapters, and finish anther whole new chapter in one night. I am officially worn out.**

 **So kiddies (if anyone else but me is reading this story), if you caught onto any of the clues back there you can guess who Lil' Miss Aster Coulson will run into next. What will be the result of that I wonder... Well the first two 'prologue' chapters make it pretty obvious, but the journey there is always the fun part! Pretty soon we're going to be neck deep in stolen jewels and DUP check points, and if that wasn't enough of a spoiler for you then well... I hope you enjoy your anticipation as much as I will.. or won't.. I haven't given the matter much thought...**


	4. Chapter II: Stranded II

**A LONG AN: (FEEL FREE TO SKIP- I KIND OF _ADIVISE_ IT)**

 **SO, um it's been a while. Yeah…**

 **Life lately has just been a real boob punch, and what they say about suffering artist is absolute bullshit. Creativity and inspiration rarely come out when you're down, but my happy place is fortunately writing this here, typing away all my obsessive thoughts derived from delighted fandoms.**

 **At first I was disheartened because it seemed no one liked this story as it was and as I was writing this chapter I ranted a BIT…**

 _ *****IN A PREVIOUS AN:**_

 _ **Ha. No one is reading my story.**_

 _ **Oh well, I'm writing for me anyways so I guess I'll just carry on terrorizing the internet.**_

 _ **Wubba Lubba Dub Dub**_

 _ **Enjoy mother fuckers :)*****_

 **Again.** _ **Yeah**_ **. I'm so sorry!**

 **I've been watching too much _Rick and Morty_ if you can tell, I highly recommended watching it if you want to ruin your life!**

 **It occurred to me as long as I like what I write, then I shouldn't let this get me down. I apologize to those out there that who were expecting another quick update, and whom I ultimately ghosted.**

 **My ranting is over.**

…

 **And I TOTALLY teased you all last two chapters with relevant Infamous characters, and I apologize for holding out. But today I give you that sweet taste of recognizable content that you so hunger for!**

 **I own nothing.**

 _Summary: "Those who escape hell, however, never talk about it, and nothing much bothers them after that."-Charles Bukowski She didn't think she would be anything other than ordinary, didn't think they would lock her up for being a conduit. She didn't think Augustine would train her to kill her own kind. But she definitely didn't expect to be dumped in Seattle at the feet of her next target._

 **Warning for use of language. Lots of fucks given.**

* * *

" _There are no coincidences, only the illusion of coincidence." -V_

* * *

Stranded II – A Remarkable Find

 **...**

 **Three years before Seattle**

 **...**

 _She walked._

And walked.

Walked. Walked. Walked.

Walking like no one's ever walked before.

 _Probably not_ , she thought, _but at least there weren't any other creepy hitchhikers other than her on this particular road._

She hurried her pace _slightly_ as she tried not to think about random information like the cannibalistic cults who lived the woods.

…

Aster taped her nub bitten nails on the arm of the faux leather lounge chair, fiddling with the chain connecting the pen to her request form. The bank was sparsely occupied by herself, an old elderly couple, and a lone employee behind the counter typing away on his keyboard. It was getting late in the afternoon, her long walk taking up seemingly the majority of her day, and her nerves only continued to fester as the hours wore on.

"I can help whoever's next."

She watched one of the elder gentlemen struggle idly towards the counter, before she leaned back into a great slouch and groaned inwardly. How long would she be here? Rubbing her hand on her face she took out a cheap plastic phone, it read 4:43. The bank closed at six, and if she didn't get out of there soon, she would be camping out on the streets until it would re-open the next morning. After the pretty rays of sunshine are replace with florescent ones and shady corners became darker, the whole one block makes a difference ideal vanishes and she would be a victim of crime just waiting to happen. She rubbed her eye sockets harshly, as the time ticked away on her phone screen. 44.. 45.. 47.. 53 –

…

"Um Miss?"

 _Shit_ , she had fallen asleep. Her body shot right up, her legs wobbling uneasily from the sudden lack of blood in her head, forcing her to stumble slightly back and forth.

"Oh! Yeah- I mean yes. I'm next!" was the garble the flooded her mouth accompanied by a weak smile and excited tone that felt more like vomit coming out the back of the throat. Aster waved the clipboard in her hands and made her way to the raised bar, but the man behind the reinforced glass beat her to the punch. "I'm sorry mam, but we close in ten minutes. Any dealings with the bank will be available tomorrow."

What. The. Fuck- To simply put it, all the bottled up frustration of her day hit its boiling point.

" _WHAT THE FUCK?!"_ she screeched, "You mean you just let me sit her for hours to fill out some fucking useless form, and just kick me out! What kind of business are you running here?! I _demand_ to speak to your manager!"

"Mam, the bank is closed. You can come back in the morning at 9 AM", the man stated, promptly turning out the light and closing the window.

She stormed up and began hitting the glass, "HEY YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE ME HERE LIKE THIS! HELLOOO!"

It was two more hits before security appeared out of nowhere and dragged her resisting self, yelling profanities and insults left and right, and dropping her ass on the sidewalk after which the doors locked electronically.

Enraged, Aster aimed a misplaced kick at the door, hitting the hard brick exterior instead and cried out in both pain and desperation, "GOD DAMNIT."

She pathetically sat on the pavement once again sobbing over her abused foot and wounded pride. Today was so fucked. She huffed trying to even out her breaths, failing miserably, and wiped her tears and snot on the back of her jacket. Passer-byers shot confused and/or apathetic glances at her crumpled form, hurrying past as Aster spent her time with clinched her fingers in her ashy locks of hair.

As time dwindled by, the sun quickly set in the early autumn evening, causing Aster to tug the lapel of her jacket as close to her chest as she possibly could to block out the frigid cool breeze.

She picked herself from the pavement and began to aimlessly walk in a sort of limping fashion down the street. The street lamps flickered as she had passed several blocks, going around corners passing a couple of bars and late night clubs along the way. She immersed herself listening to the music from the stereos and the chatter of conversation, and seemed to lose herself in the soft neon lights behind her eyelids.

As one can expect she wasn't paying enough attention to see a figure come barreling down the concrete pathway. Right. Into. Her.

 _"GET OUTTA THE FUCKING WAY LADY!"_

"Wha- _UMPH_ "

The culprit's heavy arm literally knocked the wind from her, and didn't even glance her way as they ran into a nearby alley next to a 24-hour drug store. She gasped for breath and clutched her bruising ribs, and brushed off a concerned looks thrown her way, as the lingering cloud of smoke made her woozy. She made a feeble attempt to run after the bastard, who left a curious trail of smoke that glinted in the neon lights, before she began to feel less and less athletically inclined by the second. Aster fell against the redbrick of the alley opening as black spots flashed across her vision; she (despite being very recently assaulted) really needed to work out more. Aster lifted her head to look for the asshole only to see a rusty dumpster and an otherwise empty alley. The light hum of a vent fan abutting from the wall of the drug store and the small flickering light atop barely illuminated in the dark.

There was no trace of the man other than a slight sting when she tried to straighten her posture.

She stomped over to the open lid of the dumpster, but found nothing but old ply wood and H-VAC filters. _Great_. She had to run into Harry Fucking Houdini who could careless who he knocked over in the middle of one of his magic tricks. She sighed loudly and turned back to the street when her foot slipped on an object, sending her ungracefully into the wall of a familiar dumpster. She fumbled for her phone to help light her way without further bodily injury, before swearing in surprise. She carefully kneeled to the ground and picked up the offending object of her demise, her fingers peeling back the plastic wrap, and fanning the numerous bills until they snapped back into place with good ol' Ben's face absently staring back at her.

"No freaking way," she whispered in awe.

The notes were still bound in the paper that the bank hadn't yet removed, and were as pristine as they could be from lack of use other than a few scuffs from the asphalt. There had to be at least four grand in her shaking hands.

Aster was no thief, she knew being caught with this could land her in jail, but a little voice in the back of her mind whispered _Its either this or sleeping on the streets._

She knew she was close to desperation, if not on poverty's doorstep, and this was just _too tempting_. Paranoia creeped up on her as she slowly tucked the money into the back waist of her jeans. The wrongness of her actions seeped through the seams of her conscience as she stepped into the light outside of the alley, and made her way to the shadows where she, strangely enough, felt safer.

 _Thank you smokeman._

 **…**

 **AN:**

 **I wanted to end it here but I'm entertaining the thought of a double update to up hold my promise.**

 **And t** **his is definitely NOT a Hank Daughtry pairing fic, dream on. I enjoyed his back stabbing and thieving ways in the game, but SERIOUSLY.**

 **TBC…**


	5. Chapter III: Captured I

**AN:**

 _Oh-oh at the late night, double feature, picture show._

 _I wanna go, oh-oh, to the late night double feature picture show._

 **I thought that this was appropriate for this event, as it happens that I write these stories in the dark of the night, and this particular night I've given the internet two new chapters!**

 **THIS IS A DOUBLE UPDATE; Make sure to check out the previous chapter before continuing, or else it will most likely not make sense.**

 **And I couldn't wait for Halloween for a Rocky Horror reference. I'm an incredibly impatient person it seems.**

 **It's funny, whenever I brainstorm these stories on paper I just cram all of my chaotic little thoughts onto one page in one of my vast number of notebooks leftover from my schooldays. That shit looks like the worst spider web mankind has ever seen I tell you. Hell, I'll even start rambling on about a completely different story idea on the same page, and then everything is all jumbled up together. Yikes… My thought processes are weird. Tell me, does it show in my writing? Lol… *nervously laughing here***

 **Yeah.**

 **Here's that second chapter I promised!**

 **I listened to**

 _Rise of the Villans | Hour of Powerful Dark Epic Music Mix_

 _Emotions Series – Anger | Most Epic Angry Dark Music Mix_

 **Both on** _ **YouTube**_ **– not for everyone I know.**

 **I own nothing.**

 _Summary: "Those who escape hell, however, never talk about it, and nothing much bothers them after that."-Charles Bukowski She didn't think she would be anything other than ordinary, didn't think they would lock her up for being a conduit. She didn't think Augustine would train her to kill her own kind. But she definitely didn't expect to be dumped in Seattle at the feet of her next target._

 **Warning for use of language and violence.**

* * *

" _ **Science Fiction/Double Feature", Richard O'Brien**_

 _Science fiction_

 _Double feature_

 _Dr. X will build a creature_

 _See androids fighting Brad and Janet_

 _Ann Francis stars in Forbidden Planet_

 _Oh-oh at the late night, double feature, picture show._

 _I wanna go, oh-oh, to the late night double feature picture show._

 _By R.K.O., oh-oh, at the late night double feature picture show._

 _In the back row at the late night double feature picture show._

* * *

Captured I – Friends with Benefits

…

 _ **Three years before Seattle**_

…

One hop skip and a street away from the incident, Aster lucked out on an old motel renting out rooms for the low price of forty a night and a 24 hour accessible vending machine for dinner, no questions asked. Which was not surprising as she tried to ignore other night crawlers coming and going as time crept on.

As soon as she closed the locked door behind her, she tossed the bundle of cash she had left on the old motel comforter, and rushed to the small alcove in the corner of the room she assumed held a bath room of sorts. She pushed the ugly brown metal screen open to reveal a small vanity mirror, the sink just underneath with no counter space, and a retro pink tub and shower combo next to the toilet. Turning the water on she tried to cool herself down, despite the freezing temperatures outside, her anxiety shooting her heartrate through the roof. She closed her eyes breathing in and out, gripping the sides of the sink with whit knuckles. Opening her eyes she gazed into the orbs looking back at her, then just beyond the top right of her ear to the cash laying innocently on the bed. She felt like she was in a dream, with all the blurry edges hedging her vision, or was that exhaustion. She was so tired. All the stress and excitement of the day overwhelmed her as she stumbled towards the bed. Her knees buckled and she threw her palms out to catch herself on the scratchy red carpet. Scooting to rest her back against the foot board, all of her remaining energy vacated her limbs and she could feel the weights on her eyelids slope down.

…

She woke up with an aching back and a nasty carpet burn on her left check. Aster groaned out trying to siting up properly, licked her dry lips and wincing at the sandpaper sensation left her tongue. She made note to hit up the convenience store down the _other_ way to get the essentials. Luckily her phone still seemed to have a charge left and she began to look up towing companies in the area that would look the other way of large payments of cash.

She took a nice long 30 minute shower after she called a small family operated service sending out, who she was told would be the owners son, and tried to make herself look more normal than homeless and she assumed she looked the night before trekking down the highway. Her phone buzz that he was two minutes away, and she grabbed what little belongings she had (her phone her makeshift bag) including the cash, which was stuffed nicely into a complementary plastic garbage bag. On her way at checking out she nabbed a couple of pop tarts and water bottles before waving down her ride pulling into the snow covered parking lot.

Aster greeted him half-heartedly with mouthfuls of her breakfast and shivering hands, then began to give him directions to her abandoned failure of a vehicle.

…

They parted at a near gas station, her thanking him with and generous tip and a wave, soon leaving her at pump five thinking about her plan. And what's more the young lad had brought the part she needed to fix her heater, and in a quick fix the air pooling into her car wasn't from the bite of the outside cold. She adjusted some dark square sunglasses she bought inside the station on her nose trying to read the road map in front of her. It was a bit archaic, but she only had so much time before google maps gave out along with her unpaid data plan. From what she could tell she was about two hours away from the New Mexican State line, and then it would be another eight or nine before she would hit Las Cruses. It would be a relaxing drive through the beautiful Land of Enchantment, cruising through Santa Fe and Albuquerque before heading west to California. Her scheming hadn't gotten too far, but she figured she'd have plenty of time on the road to figure something out.

The pump jerked to a stop, and she turned the lid to her gas tank tightly before hopping into her car.

This was good. A fresh new start.

Her worries finally began to slowly fade into the back of her mind as she started her journey south.

…

She was enjoying the tunes on her FM when she saw flashing lights up ahead caused her immediately take her foot of the gas and switch lanes. AS she neared closer to what she assumed was a speed trap, she counted five or six other state trooper vehicles and other men who appeared to be armored in obnoxious colored armor packing heavy artillery and big dogs. She came to a complete stop behind three other cars at this checkpoint, but kept her car in drive as she saw them searching through the truck and passenger seat doors of a car two cars away from her. The occupants were filed out into a line were the men dressed up like bumblebees performed some sort of retinal and finger print scan clearing most of the people. Aster discretely switched her Radio to a local AM station and sharpened her ears as the foreboding new played out on her speakers.

" _ **In other news, police and DUP officers continue the manhunt for known bio-terrorist Hank Daughtry. The suspects' last known whereabouts in Colorado Springs, where he robbed the local city bank, left a new total body count of 23 as he seemingly continues so make his way down in a southern route-"**_

Bio-Terrorist. A freaking _bio-terrorist_?!

She by no means discriminate against others in hate or by willful ignorance, but all over the world every news channel leached onto the new horrific threat against humanity. Bio-terrorist were either labeled as outlaws using their new powers for selfish gain, or sleeping mines sitting in your community just waiting for something or some _one_ to trigger them. They were both mysterious and _very lethal_ at the same time. The body count since their discovery in the downfall of Empire City, the public's fear grew further and further of these strange new powers no one understood. They were labeled as monsters and the damn government gave the DUP power to hunt them down like monsters. There were rumors of the experiments they were performing on their prisoners, whispers that spoke of the cruelty and the abuse that broke every god damn human civil right violation there was. But they government ensured that with the DUP locking them all away that their children would be safe. Aster felt her stomach turn every time she turned on her radio, watched a new broadcast, or listen to the lynch mob that surrounded her. She had the luxury to grow up away from the horrors of the world, but now days everywhere you turn humanity reared its ugly face and stared you down. And she felt so disgusted with herself that she couldn't do a damn thing to stop these terrors. The shame she felt was like a stain on her soul, but she was completely powerless to these omnipotent higher forces at work and could only watch idly by as they tore the world apart.

But this Hank Daughtry. He was the lowest of the low. He had to power to change, to make a difference in this shit situation, but he squandered his power for killing and reaping. He was one of the many who gave them the _excuse_ to throw the rest away. Rage bubbled in her throat at the thought of meeting such a cockroach. No _parasite_.

The officers had already moved on to the next car and were gesturing for her and the people in front of her car to join the others in line. _Shit_. _The_ _money_. The one of the _few_ times she has admittedly done something illegal, she's about to _be searched by the fucking DUP_? They will take any reason of suspicion during one of their witch hunts to kidnap you, slap a _conduit_ or _conduit supporter_ badge on your forehead, and lock you away for your very, very short life.

She had to think fast. Grabbing the bag she pulled the wad of paper out under her dashboard, tried to evenly divide it between the soles of her combat boots, and left them loosely tied as possible as the leather tore through her socks, into her skin. Someone knocked on her side window causing her to jump and hit her elbow on the inner door handle. Wincing in pain, she held her arms up as she reached into the passenger seat to grab her black down winter coat before stepping out into the cold and throwing her coat on as quickly as she could to defend herself from the harsh winds. It was very unlucky to be in the middle of a forest where roads could become hazardous wind tunnels with the lightest storm. She patted down her army green cargo pants **(don't judge they're comfy)** to cover were they'd ridden up when she was _adjusting_ her laces, and awkwardly followed the others to the back of the line, impersonating a penguin waddle the entire way there. As she arrived, there were out seven other before her, a mother and her two kids, another couple, and a few gentlemen. She watched as she mother was scanned, and then as she worriedly watched her son and daughter pass the test. The next man stepped up, and she watched him too be scanned and passed on beyond the checkpoint.

Aster was curious, they weren't interrogating anyone if they seen the _bio-terrorist_ at large. Were they looking for trace evidence that he had been with these people? _Could they even do that?_ She thought about what she had hidden in her boots and froze. _What if that guy was a conduit? He LITERALLY_ disappeared _in a trail of smoke!_

Shit. Shit. Shit.

…

It was almost her turn, they just turned away the guys to spaces in front as she inched closer to her freedom. Looking over at him as he passed she now had a better view of the road, but she could almost see something in the trees hidden away... it was- it was a bus! She tried to get a better view of it, but suddenly the device they used on everyone else stared blaring a siren spelling out prime conduit in red on the screen to the panicked man in front of her. He tried to run, but the DUP officers roughly dragged him off by his forearms none too gently, as he started to yell that it was a "mistake", that he'd didn't "have no special powers" before one of the clearly more agitated agents slammed a baton into his head.

So startled, Aster didn't realize that she was next until someone behind her pushed her forward and she nearly stumbled. Still stunned trying to process this new information that they were indeed taking _prisoners_ , she completely missed the question from the agent in front of her who was holing out his hand expectedly.

" _What_?" she replied lamely? She tensed as another soldier moved closer behind the agent in a most intimidating manor.

"Your identification mam," he replied curtly, looking frustrated and sniffed his sensitive red nose due to the cold. He looked to be more of a pencil pusher type, dressed like one of those officers on the death star that get force choked by their psychotic leader. He clearly wasn't used to such conditions and the longer he waited out here, the more he looked like upset pug. She scrambled for her wallet, thankfully still in her coat pocket and handed him her driver's license. He looked down at the information provided and back at her several times, running his eyes up and down her body, in a way at any other time she would have decked him for, before handing back her card. She put it away and went to move but he place a leather clad hand in her way.

"It says here that your height is roughly 5' 11'' is it not?"

What? "Um yes it is."

His smirk was grossly unattractive.

"Then why is it that my 6'1'' is no match for yours? Given the heels on your foot ware we should be on even footing."

 _Crap. Crap. Crap_

"That ID is old,-"

"Just issued two months ago, mam I have to ask to remove for footwear and hand over any contraband hidden within," he gestured to the guard behind to come forward.

"Just wait a minute! I AM NOT taking my shoes off out here, its fucking below freezing!"

The soldier swooped behind her and position the baton on her shoulder causing her to freeze. He leaned in to where she could feel his moistened breath on her cheek, "Take them off girl. OR I WILL." He growled. Aster gulped. Leaning down carefully, trying to avoid as much body contact as possible with the black and yellow dope behind her, she slowly untied her laces and toed her boots off with a grimace as the snow began to liquefy into her worn socks. The agent picked them up, the heavy weight of the payload inside lighting a triumphant grin upon his face-

A huge explosion about a hundred yards away boomed in the distance and shook that wind around them. A great ball of fire and smoke rose to the air quickly as a DUP transport was launched into the air, and then began to fall in its path of well-aimed trajectory. Towards THEM…

Her heart jumped into her throat.

It missed by twenty yards, and the people behind her began to scream and then scatter. The officer dropped her shoes in the snow began yelling orders "MOVE OUT! I WANT ALL UNITS TO ENGAGE THE TARGET IMMEDIATELY!" he then turned specifically to the soldier behind me, "Escort the remaining detainees to the next check point. THAT'S AN ORDER!"

The DUP soldier holing dragged her into the wooded area just beyond the next turn towards the fire in the distance, so she began to struggle. "What are you CRAZY-"She was hit full force in her back, close enough to her injury from the night before. Through the cold winds she was barely able to gasp for air as he dragged her sagged body through the brush to where what she could clearly discern was indeed a prisoner hold with bars and thick metal grates over the majority of its windows. He shoved her inside, where she saw about four others handcuffed in DUP specialized restraints, she noted most of them had met some extent of excessive force, which forcefully connected them to their seated positions. He then tossed her into a seat closest to the front cabin where glass divided them, and proceeded to cuff her. Just before he could fasten her to the bus, crop of trees within sight caught fire causing them to duck down as some windows in front were blown out.

Aster could barely hear over her ringing eardrums as he cursed beneath his helmet, then he locked their paddock and rushed to the wheel. As he started the engine, a few police officers and civilians ran towards them in hopes of safety. But he slammed his foot on the accelerator and peeled off before any of them reached the outside. Her, unlike the other fastened detainees had a rougher ride and was launched into the air every time the bus drove over rocks and knolls through the trees. She was slammed into the seat padding in front of her and grunted as they finally escaped through an out crop of trees onto the main road.

The driver had to swivel around other parker cars and people trying to flee. As he drove on the sound of gunfire and explosives became louder and louder, and out the windows Aster could see entire DUP platoons fire against a hidden enemy, which seemed to burn them down as fast as they came. Suddenly the bus swerved again to avoid a burning AUV that came barreling down towards them, and then clipped the back side of the bus knocking the bus into a roll, and forcing her head through one of the windows.

…

She shouldn't be alive.

Her muscles screamed as she attempt to stand, debris all around her and she tried to force one of her pinned feet to move, but the metal frame of the destroyed seat she was trapped under wouldn't give. She was now on the opposite side of the bus it seemed, or so she assumed, as it was on its side, and given the amount blood and burnt metal she was sitting on.

She tried not to look where the other bodies were thrown.

She saw a bent window frame above her, bent low enough to be within her grasp, and reached up and grabbed the hot metal. The edges were sharp and cut deep into her fingers and palms, and using every ounce of upper body strength she managed to pull her leg free. She felt the bones her ankle pop then she cried out in pain and bit her tongue, before slumping to the ground not bothered as much by the glass biting into her bare skin than her disjointed ankle. When she looked at its odd angle she wanted to vomit and tried to look around for anything to wrap it. The only thing left to salvage was the DUP's yellow coat hanging off their dead captor's shoulders. His body swung slightly as he hung limply from his attached seatbelt. She drug her broken frame over glass and metal, and pulled herself to his level to undo the completely redundant bindings that were supposed to save his life. She made sure to avoid his expected fall as his body crumpled on the ground in an awkward position.

Aster didn't bother taking off his helmet, it would make this all _too real_.

After wrapping her injured ankle, she using wat was left of the buses frame and released the emergency roof hatch and forced it open with her uninjured leg. Carefully crawling out her mind was numbly buzzing around the question where did the fight go, and where to hide. The snow made a ghastly combination with the smoke in the air, a sight she never knew she did not wat to witness until now.

She moved forward through the smoke emitting from the torched cars on the road, lumps of what she guess were people at some point, were still burning as well.

 _Am I the only one? What happened to the others? That woman and her kids…_

She felt disjointed from reality, aimlessly wondering down the road as the snow and ash blurred together.

The curve of the road came to a stop at a small bridge over a gaping chasm before it disappeared into a tunnel. She felt like a child, scared of the shadows and the monsters that possibly linger there. She shivered pulling her top closer to her skin, her jacket was lost, pant were torn half way to hell, and those heartless bastards stole her shoes. Realistically _not_ going into the tunnel would more than likely kill her if help did not come soon.

Unfortunately fate left that decision up to someone _entirely_ different.

" _WHOSE THERE?!"_

Aster hurriedly looked for any cover but was left wide open standing in the middle of the fucking bridge.

All she could do was stand there like the fool she was as her death dealer crept nearer and nearer.

" _ARE YOU FUCKING DUP? ANSWER ME!"_

Her first response was barely above a whisper "N-No," she bit out, the freezing chill in the air chocked her vocal cords. She tried clearing her throat and stated a bit loader so death could hear. "I'm not the D-DUP."

There was no response. She just leaned there on her good leg, just waiting for whatever happened _next_.

At first she hardly make out the figure in the darkness, but as he came closer his figure was easier to discern through the shroud of smoke that seemed to cloak him. Broad shouldered, long-legged, and- no hair. He had no hair. He finally came into the light were she could properly see him, and saw he had tribal tattoos on the outside of his palms but that was it. His fleece lined denim coat covers everything to his neck, other than a plain white tee, some jeans and thick boots to finish the look. He could have been just any other guy in the street you'd ever notice, if it hadn't been for his eyes. Eyes that've seen too much, or possibly done much worse. This was the bio-terrorist that everyone hunted; that _everyone feared_. But something about him was familiar to her, like one of those faces you see in dreams that you've only seen once in real life, but play over and over in your head like an endless roll of film.

"LADY I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU, BUT YOU GOTTA LEAVE!"

It felt like it physically hit her like a ton of bricks, _**fuck**_ the cliché. That voice. _"GET OUTTA THE FUCKING WAY LADY!"_ _He_ had that same voice before he knocked her over, shrouded in smoke and gone in a flash. The one that both saved her and condemned her to this fate. The fucking _GOD DAMN BIO-TERRORIST BASTARD WHO KILLED SO MANY INNOCENTS AND HE WAS RIGHT HERE!_ _He was right here, and he is about to kill me._ She felt the exact moment the adrenaline quake in her blood stream as her instincts told her to _run_.

He seemed to sense a change in her posture, and took in her fragile form until he spotted the coat of arms on her makeshift splint.

" _YOU FUCKING_ _LYING BITCH_ _I KILL YOU RIGHT HERE AND NOW!"_

 _Smoke and ember gathered around his forearms like a big wave before it lashed out at her._

She ducked and rolled out of the way, only parts of her hair singed, but landed hard and her bad foot and screamed loudly. A second barrage fired her way and her back wasn't as fortunate, she fell to her knees as the flame licked away her skin and leaving a fresh line of charred skin, like the stroke of a whip. She was left gasping for breath, praying the oxygen in her lungs would alieve her pain. It was too much, she couldn't take it and cried heavily in the cold. _It just made it hurt worse_ , she thought as she saw him draw to near her fallen form. He prepared for the killing blow, and in that moment, she swore she's never felt a deeper hatred for a living being than she did now. She could not die and give him the satisfaction. He had to _Pay_.

 _It felt as though space had shifted out of place and back again, but everything didn't line up quite right. She could feel it in the ground beneath her finger tips, I the air around her, time slowed down then sped back up again as her eyes looked upon his fiery fist coming down upon her, gazed into the rage burning in his eyes._

 _ **She snarled and grabbed his face.**_

 _All went white._

…

 **AN:**

 **Yeah. Cliffy there. I'm really tired but satisfied with the outcome. I apologize for any editing errors, please point them out in the comments or through my private message board.**

 _ **So this was all written in one night, it's not great but I'll go ahead and post it, then probably think about re-editing it on a later date.**_

 **You got your Hank Daughtry.**

 **More** _ **InFAMOUS**_ **characters to come soon.**

 _ **TBC…**_


	6. Chapter IV: Captured II

**AN:**

 **It's been a while again, I'm sorry. But don't worry more ideas are coming your way!**

 **Hopefully before next year. JK Next chapter is in the works!**

 **Ha.**

 **I own nothing.**

 _Summary: "Those who escape hell, however, never talk about it, and nothing much bothers them after that."-Charles Bukowski She didn't think she would be anything other than ordinary, didn't think they would lock her up for being a conduit. She didn't think Augustine would train her to kill her own kind. But she definitely didn't expect to be dumped in Seattle at the feet of her next target._

 **Please let me know if you spot any grammatical errors via PM or review. I have no Beta.**

 **Warning for use of language and violence.**

* * *

" _Well now I know. I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person." – Sylvia Plath_

* * *

Captured II – Five Stages of Grief

…

 _ **Three years before Seattle**_

…

Aster was completely unaware of the events that followed.

The DUP reinforcements scoured the area for Daughtry, but any leads were swept away in the descending storm.

They found her, and other survivors, amongst the wreckage leading up to the tunnel. She lay prostate in the middle of the icy road, unconscious, and devoid of any injuries upon inspection despite what left of her clothing in pieces to suggest otherwise.

The retrieval team quickly collected the debris from the 'battle' for immediate disposal, before staging the tragic accident of a Semi, driven over the bridges rails by an intoxicated driver, taking the lives of several other cars upon impact. The public's thirst of a tragic news headline would be quenched, and the victim's families would bury bottomless coffins without warranting any further investigation of the DUP's involvement.

Case closed.

…

She cracked her eyes open, blinking through the sleep, and found herself sitting upright in a corner of a crowded cargo hold. She was wearing the same bulky cuffs that she wore on the DUP bus, but these kept her hands behind her back and morphed her into a giant magnet stuck to a refrigerator, or in this instance: the wall.

Tensing up she gave a few hard tugs before crumbling in defeat. She halfheartedly opened her eyes and realized she wasn't alone. Her heart sped up as she noticed bodies lining the walls of the compartment siting on benches quite like her own, all restrained in a similar fashion and in varying states of consciousness. She carefully measured the other occupants, some who appeared to be still comatose, and then the very few like her, that were stirred awake or appeared to have been awake for some time. A wave of bile rose in her throat when she did not see the woman or her children from the DUP checkpoint, but she swallowed her survivor's guilt and told herself that it was probably for the best they weren't here. _Wherever here was, her memory between the bus crash and everything up till now was a blur. All she could recover were flashes of metal, fire, and pain_. To distract herself from her dark thoughts, she analyzed those whom had already awakened.

To her left sat two disheveled men, crouched uncomfortably in the corner opposite of her, whispering to each other conspiratorially with worried looks darting across the cabin.

Across the hold closer to the center, a woman in leggings and a dirtied yoga top kept to herself on the floor, arms wound around her legs in the fetal position, and her light brown hair with expensive highlights tucked under her elbows. She was surprised when she caught a glint of a large carrot diamond on one of those spindly fingers, a fact Aster thought was interesting seeing as something that valuable wasn't stolen, _yet_. Aster was mildly upset seeing as she was, aptly put, free to move around at all as she pleased, but would rather do a poor impression of a turtle. But who was she to judge _really_?

She sighed and turned her head slightly without notice and looked through her bangs at the other man on her wall to her right, who sat under one of the four lights in the space. He had his hood up covering a dark face, so she wasn't sure of his age, but his eyes were not really gazing at anything. If he was hiding his panic he hid it well under his mask of apathy, or he could just be trying to block out the cumbersome laser beams overhead.

 _How he managed to do that handcuffed was impressive in itself._

A few others stared to stir and she pursed her lips then turned her head to take a head count of the cabin.

 _Four, seven, thirteen…_

Straining her neck, she tried counting the bodies fallen over halfway to the floor, or resting against the wall like herself. Fifteen... _Sixteen people_. Sixteen prisoners. Fellow suspected bio-terrorists.

 _But where were they headed?_

 _..._

Sometime later after an internal debate, she turned and leaned toward to the stone faced guy as much as she could, wincing a bit at the awkward angle, her mind scrambling for friendly conversation to squeeze some semblance of answer about where-the-fuck they were, luckily from someone who might have been conscious for the ride longer than she had.

She grunted and he shot a side glance of vague interest her way, she offered what she hoped looked like a tired smile in return, then shifted in the new position to look more comfortable than she really was.

"How long were you awake?" The words poured out of her mouth. She really didn't think they had time to mince words and dance around the obvious, but she knew she would need allies in whatever encampment they were being herded off to.

He let out a soft breath and relaxed before he jerked his head at the guys in the corner. "Those two woke me up. That was a couple of hours ago, but all the others were still under except for _her_." The concern in his voice melted his frozen demeanor, despite his awful attempt to hide it. He shifted back as much as he could to lessen the strain on his back that she was beginning to know all too well. His hood fell back just enough for her to see a clean shaven buzz cut, but no other distinguishing marks of any kind. Now thinking about it, his presence was a little more neat and tidy than some of the others in the car with them, and was wearing a basic navy zipped jacket, dark grey slacks, and some cheap black laced leather shoes. He held himself in a way that screamed pride and restraint, but most importantly a practiced calm and also a decent amount of muscles that certain people only achieved through military or police training. She was leaning towards the latter, seeing as he was piled in with the rabble and not receiving some kind of preferential treatment from Uncle Sam.

She turned her head discreetly in the direction of the woman, and asked without words _**'what about her?'**_

He didn't immediately answer, but answered a few seconds later. "She wasn't cuffed when I came-to, and has kept to herself since."

She rose a brow, **"?"**

"Take my word for it, _she's_ _**harmless**_." His tone was firm and implied he would not discuss her further. Aster nodded along, pretending to forget all about the obvious sentiment in his eyes, and decided to store that information in her arsenal for later use.

"So what were you? Cop? Military? You seem to be holding yourself together better in here than the rest of us."

His face betrayed nothing, but his eyes narrowed and raked over her form, no doubt reassessing her less than intimidating form. Her own assessment had been correct though when he answered in a clipped tone "I'm a Detective. Homicide Unit in Denver."

People are more or less more forthcoming when you catch them off guard like that, they always give away something whether they're conscious of it or not.

"But you seem to be, if not, more _'held together'_ _as you say_ , than me." He stated.

It was a just statement.

"Well you know, I deflect my emotional distress with wit and boundless sarcasm."

He wasn't so convinced.

"I doubt that."

Aster let out a theatrical sigh, and muttered under her breath but loud enough for him to hear, _"Well, you can't please everyone."_

 _..._

He chose to be quiet for the next few minutes, intently trying to ignore her not so hidden stares. The lights would flicker every now and then, the whole cabin would deftly shake and tremble up and down with the occasional loud gust of wind roaring in their ears. She was mildly curious about what kind of transport they were in. Aster really hoped it wasn't one of those flying machines that could fall out of the sky; she already had enough experience witnessing fiery heaps of metal soaring through the air in her general direction. She herself had never flown before, and given the amount of vomit she would project after a simple amusement ride, she really never had the care to.

He watched as the trepidation snuck its way past her defences, with small beads of sweat trailing along her temple, and her complexion turning a tad greener with every bump and fall.

"Not too fond of flying are you? Is this your first time?" He seemed more amused than concerned on her behalf than she would have liked.

"What are you talking about? I'm just fine see?" she leaned forward to try and hide her features, but could not resist the small flinch and closed her eyes when the floor pitched once again.

"Hey, don't worry yourself too much. These things are built for tougher things and a little wind." He tried to calm her, his protective instinct of the weak and feeble kicking in, despite his previous annoyance with her.

 _Yeah no shit Sherlock. But we're both in an enclosed space filled with people who can potentially_ _ **force**_ _ **this bird into the ground.**_

 _A couple of deep breaths, through the nose and out the mouth, that's all it takes._

 _In. Out._

 _In. Out._

 _We're so gonna totally die._

Mr. Detective, who probably wasn't used to just leaving people alone in crisis because, that was his _job_ , began to just talk out a random topic to help reel her back into reality.

"They got me when I was working a case on a residential break-in turned deadly. The crime scene had undertones of Bio-Terrorist activity, and one of our greenhorns contaminated some of the evidence. So they insisted that everyone get re-printed and do some other tests. At first they cleared me, and let me go on my way. But a week later I was called into my captains office and they told me right then and there that I was a suspected BT, but they said they would rather **" _handle this quietly than let the public find out that one of their best and brightest in blue was really the enemy_."** I told them that was a bunch of _horse-shit_ , and if they thought they could try to imprison me without a warrant they had another thing coming. Of course the next thing I knew, after leaving my house the next morning, they put a black bag over my head and I found myself here."

Her heart rate started to even out and the pounding in her ears lessened a bit. To regain her footing, she shot a jibe at his bedtime story. "Aw, you _poor, poor_ policeman. Did they forget to ask _politely_ to kidnap you too?"

He brushed off her abrasive attitude, getting more used to their conversations, and suddenly had a thought.

"You never told me your name."

"Mama said I shouldn't talk to strangers," she joked in a cracked voice.

He stared at her in mild amusement and growing irritation, "You started this conversation."

"I didn't ask for your name"

"It's Dominic. Dominic Richard Carver. And no you didn't."

She was having a little fun, so she remained silent.

"Come on I gave you mine, now give me yours."

She gasped, "Did Mr. Police Detective just proposition a complete stranger? The _shame_!"

He turned away in clear frustration, "I guess I overestimated your maturity level-"

"Hey-!"

He was back to ignoring her, at least until he said, "as I was saying before I was interrupted, I was misguided in hoping there would be another _adult_ on this damn cargo plane that could _**shed some light**_ on the situation."

She was quiet. He huffed out his anger in a violent breath, tilting his head toward the ceiling in exasperation. He saw her shift slightly in his direction, and internally he growled. This girl was running circles around him and teasing him when they were both in a very serious situation like it was a _game_. It pissed him off. He was very determined to ignore her existence for the duration of the transport, and probably after that too, until he heard her speak quietly. Her expression was grave, but he could see fire in her eyes that convinced him that she was the farthest thing away from giving up.

"Touché _Dick_. **So what are we going to do about it?**"

…

 **AN:**

 **Thought that this was a good place to stop, initially this chapter would have been Aster's arrival at the DUP facility. But that in itself would have been an easy 4,000 words on its own and I wouldn't be able to divide this chapter with that one without it feeling disorganized.**

 **Even I was eager to introduce more inFAMOUS characters in this chapter instead of some boring OC's, but hey, hopefully this will be better.**

 **On the bright side I can always revise this again and confuse everyone who is reading this story :)**

 **Sorry again.**

 **Please let me know if you spot any grammatical errors via PM or review. I have no Beta.**

 **Bye guys!**

 _ **TBC..**_


	7. Chapter V: Shooting in the Dark

**AN:**

 **Hello my pretties,**

 **Last chappie was a bit of a letdown, even to me so I went ahead and started to write the next one right away!**

 **Even though I will most likely not post this as soon as you all like, hehe.**

 ****Game Spoilers ahead! I haven't had the chance to play ALL the InFAMOUS game series (only Second Son, First Light, and the first InFAMOUS in that order) but I've tried to watch as many YouTube videos and read Wikipedia pages as I can to build a semi-solid foundation for this story.**

 **So, let's get started shall we?**

 **Sincerely (but not so much),**

 **Me**

 **I own nothing. Like _really_ , if I did I wouldn't be dirt poor like I am now lol. Invest and save people! Jk**

 _Summary: "Those who escape hell, however, never talk about it, and nothing much bothers them after that."-Charles Bukowski She didn't think she would be anything other than ordinary, didn't think they would lock her up for being a conduit. She didn't think Augustine would train her to kill her own kind. But she definitely didn't expect to be dumped in Seattle at the feet of her next target._

 **Warning for use of language and violence and THINGS :)**

* * *

 ** _"Hell is empty, and all of the devils are here." – William Shakespeare_**

* * *

 **Shooting in the Dark**

 _..._

 ** _Three years before Seattle_**

 _..._

 _When she was a child, the world taught her to run and hide from the monsters, but they never did tell her what to do when the monsters catch up._

Aster and her newly made acquaintance sat quietly for the last two hours, waiting patiently as their fellow companions sprout up like daisies, letting a quiet rumble of hushed whispers and desperate cries rise throughout the room. A few of the _firsties_ , like them, sat quietly observing the growing crowd mostly in trepidation and boredom. It was like being in an overly crowded elevator, filled to the brim with bustling bodies, all of whom where strangers who kept within eyesight not knowing what they could be capable of. No one knew who to trust, they had to be here for a reason right? Most of them were chained to the wall like her, unlike the yoga woman from the corner who relocated to the only empty wall- that she suspected opened into a hatch that led outside, so that left little choice but to keep to themselves.

 _…_

Aster cursed bit to herself upon awakening when she noticed that when she was taken, no one had taken the opportunity to give her new shoes or replace her tattered clothing, so she had to vigorously wiggle her toes continuously to keep her blood flowing to them. Over the last few minutes, the wind outside had become very much louder causing any conversation in the cabin to halt, and the temperature had noticeably dropped to nearly freezing levels. The metal bit into her arms and feet in a painful manner, wincing every time she lifted her foot before setting it back down again. Richard threw a half concerned look I her direction, but she shrugged it off as useless sentiment, and redirected her focus on keeping all of her toes.

Suddenly the whir of the engine vibrated the walls of the cargo hold, and they could all feel the descent in elevation through the air, occasionally to be thrown against one another from the sharps turns of the aircraft, and then the final touch down onto, what she hoped and _dreaded_ at the same time, the ground.

Yoga lady stumbled when her perch shook, and her wall slowly began to open up into a ramp outside, letting in a cold chill and windswept snowflakes onto the floor. You could almost choke in both laughter and sadness at the pathetic hope that filled her eyes before she bolted down the ramp. Out of Aster's field of vison, she heard the woman's feet fall down on the snow, followed by heavier footfalls, before the screaming started. Her wails eerily carried over the wind until they vanished completely under the sounds of sirens and a voice on a speaker shouting out commands.

More snow flown in accompanied by DUP footmen de-magnetizing everyone from the wall one-by-one, and leading out towards the cold exterior. A Dup seized one had on the back of her neck, forcing her to lean forward, and used the other to unfasten her from her seat. He, at least from what she could tell from his build but not so much through the mirrored visor, then yanked her up on her sore feet _thank god they're still there_ and began to push her toward the forming line of freezing forms, leading to a fenced off area consisting of tall towers of concrete and tents here and there. Looking around, she observed that they were inside the interior of some sort. A concrete perimeter with towers and flood lights, surrounding the larger courtyard they currently walked in, and then further inside, a two story red brick building with bars on all visible windows. It was ' _supported'_ by the occasional abutting slab of concrete-shards sticking out of its walls, making it look more like an haunted castle found in some _Tolkien_ book, than a government operated building.

Bringing her focus back to the task at hand, with the forceful shove from a member of the bumblebee squad, they herded her and the last group into what looked like an impromptu observation room in a quarantine zone. She couldn't guess why, conduism wasn't infectious, if anything this felt like another scare tactic aimed at them to scare them into obedience. They rushed them into the glass walled cell that made her feel like she was inside of some kind of demented petting zoo. The front of the room had another door that led to an open area, sectioned off with fenced off barbed wire and DUPs packing much _bigger_ weaponry than she's ever seen on the news thus far. Yoga lady had not reappeared with the group and remained forebodingly missing. Her stomach flipped circles at the thought that this definitely felt more and more like a concentration camp that led to the end of the road for her and all these people. Her mind was swimming in denial _because this shit could not be happening._ It did not happen anymore because _the world had_ _changed_. Or it was _supposed to have been._

Above the door, a screen projected itself along the glass revealing a VERY familiar face; Brooke Augustine head of the **_Department of Unified Protection_** , shone in all of her pixelated glory, a stone like demeanor gracing her features that complimented her own _bio-terrorist_ powers _very well._ To Aster, she looked like a natural leader, charismatic even just from her shoulders up profile, and with the steely look she had in her eyes, a very capable warrior if called for. The energy that wafted from her could be felt by some of the others in the room as the seemed to relax by just being in her digital presence. She just made Aster more nervous, knowing this woman now practically held her life in the palm of her hand. The hologram wavered for a moment before moving forward and words began to spill out of the speakers built in _somewhere_ in the room out of sight.

 **" _Greetings. My name, if some of you do not already know, is Brooke Augustine; Leader of the Department of Unified Protection. _**

**_It is my job to safe guard our country from certain individuals who either are unaware of the potential threat they carry, or the criminals to continue to tear our communities apart. You are here because you have come under the suspicion of being that very threat, and it is our job to determine which of you pose a threat to your communities and those of you who will be free to go back to your homes. I advise not to do anything rash, anything can trigger a bio-terrorist's dormant power, and the person next to you can be the very one to send you back home in a body bag." _**She took a moment to pause as if to let the passive threat sink into their minds.

 ** _"For the next several hours, all of you will be lead to our lab for further testing to separate those who simply are carriers of the BT gene, and those of you who deserve a prolonged stay with us. Remember, those around you are not your friends, any acts of insubordination will result in a federal offence and transferred immediately into incarceration. Anyone cleared will immediately be released into the custody of U.S. Federal Marshalls, and escorted back to their homes and compensated for their troubles._**

 ** _All of you, whether if you realize it or not, are performing a great sacrifice for your country that is greatly appreciated by its citizens, keeping society safe from the growing Bio-terrorist threat destroying our cities…"_**

She finished off her closing statement along the lines of ' _Thank you for your service_ ' and ' _Any leaks to the media will be destroyed upon discovery, and we will brand you a traitor for the rest of your miserable existence. So just take the hush money and live under intense scrutiny for the foreseeable future._ '

The projection vanished and the doors opened with a mechanical whirl, and to which she cursed as it rushed in the cold breeze through her thin clothing. A DUP command officer ordered them to move forward, and they slowly walked through the passage, stumbling through the icy dirt covered ground. They weren't immediately led to the building and had to jog a ways around the compound to a tunnel opening that led underneath the structure. This area had more of the concrete modifications lining the opening and along the outside walls, and an asphalt tarmac with yellow lines that flowed inside its dark interior. Cameras that were posted on either side of the opening followed their movements as they were loaded into a DUP detention bus. They didn't bother with completely restraining them, so Aster surmised that it must be a short enough ride to forgo all the protocols they seemed pretty diligent to follow beforehand.

 _…_

They moved quickly through the tunnels, seemingly going deeper and deeper underground, until they entered a tall chamber filled with various crates and ammunition, and several stations where DUP agents in their dress blue uniform's checked over the incoming cargo. The bus pulled up to the station second farthest to the right and stopped. The DUP soldier standing in the back began to vacate the bus from the back on, and she was shoved in-between the two guys whispering to each other on the plane. The one behind her roughly pushed into her back, causing her cuffs to grate against the skin of her back painfully.

" _HEY, watch it!"_

It took him a second to scramble for an apology, and then was suddenly quiet. She was kept waiting as they filed out of the bus one by one, and were lead over to two big metal doors opening up into an elevator of sorts. As they loaded in, she was caught off guard as he pushed her into the back right corner facing the doors as they closed and one of the guards punched in a code, causing the elevator to kick into gear and travel downwards. Her breath hitched and her self-preservation instincts were pulled to the forefront of her mind when he stepped even closer into her space. She could smell his sweat, and almost count the blond stubble on his jawline with how close they were. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Richard watch her worriedly and feebly make an attempt through the crowd over in her defense.

"Don't worry girlie; that ain't what I'm after. Just _talk_ I swear," he stated with sarcastic humor lighting his noticeable Texan accent, "So if you would be so _kind_ and call off your _watch_ _dog_. This won' take too long, and we don't have enough time to dawdle." He finished a little more serious this time.

She bristled, but gave up before looking towards Dick and shaking her head softly telling him to lay down for now. He threw a confused look her way, but if looks could kill she was sure she'd be covered head to toe in the bloody sinew and guts of the guy in her personal space.

"What the hell did you want to talk about _so badly_?" she bit out dryly with a raised brow.

He chuckled and leaned in her ear, "I was just wondering how the hell you survived that bus crash back on that damn mountain?" he whispered. She froze. For exactly what she wasn't sure, there were too many reasons one how did he know about that if she was the only survivor as could recall, and _who the hell_ _was_ _he_ and _what did_ _he_ _want_? Those two seemed to be the most important at the moment, and she opened her mouth to demand what the fuck he knew before he beat her to the punch.

"I was in line just behind you, saw them haul that poor guy just before the weasel got hard look' in at your pretty noggin." he stated with a little swagger as he raised his brows suggestively. She threw him a look that promised pain despite the restraints that would have made it easy, and he got the message as he teetered back slightly but close enough that their conversation couldn't be heard by unwanted ears. She inwardly smiled a bit at the small victory, and tilted her head towards him in question and asked,

"So how did _you_ land with the rest of us in this _shit_ pile of a situation?"

He smiled crookedly, but his eyes were a dead giveaway and the trepidation he must have felt from his experience. "After they hauled you off, they let the rest of us to our own devices in a free for all. It was total chaos, fire and smoke everywhere, no one could hardly see a thing. Some people trying to run ended up jamming up all the cars together, so pretty much all of us were pretty fucked by that point. We were pinned by the battle towards the bridge and the wreckage on the road. Some of us made for the trees in the direction they took you in and tried to get on the buses, but y'all plowed through the brush and almost killed us all." He said with a grimace. She stared on blankly but nodded her head apologetically, even though it wasn't her decision to commit vehicular homicide, she still felt partly guilty from the bystander effect.

"After that we followed you guys as best we could, figured that they would be taking you somewhere safe, well _safe-r_ than there," he cackled, "Up until the point your party bus was rolled into the mountain."

"After that, those left in the group kinda lost track of each other. Pretty soon, more DUP arrived rounded me and some of the other guys on the plane you saw and booked us a free flight to this _beautiful_ vacation getaway." With the way he spoken, she was sure he would have done some ridiculous gesture like jazz hands or something to emphasize his dramatic speech. She nodded absently along to his story soaking in his side of events to better help her own foggy memory, she still couldn't remember how she got out of the bus or when she lost her damn coat. He got her attention again with a nudge to her shoulder, and shot a curious look her way. "When they found you, you were almost knee deep in a crater on that bridge, which was blown to hell, almost half of it torn away by something other than that flame thrower guy…" She kept quiet, not quite sure how to respond. "Don't remember that part huh? Well shit, me and that other guy on the plane were hoping, if there was any chance, you could get us out of this peculiar situation."

She shot him a mixed look of exasperation, but mostly anger, "What the hell are you talking about?! I'm not a conduit, and even if I was one, this place is designed to **imprison** people theoretically like me! What are you, _stupid_ or something?"

He quickly backed off and started, "Now- honey I didn't mean any offen-, "He was cut off when the longest possible elevator ride came to a halt and the door opened. She pushed passed him with more strength than required and ignored his peeved look. The group was lead down more stairs, _geeze how far down does this place go?_

Three flights down they entered what looked like a cell block with a room down at the end of the hallway that could have passed off as nurse's station perhaps. Nothing too fancy. The walls were still made of concrete, a small round yellow light on the ceiling illuminating each cell, and still lined with that obnoxious yellow decor on the walls on floors. They were each lead to a separate cell, which by the looks of them were at least seven by ten feet in space, and each cell had one toilet, sink, and a concrete bench that probably would serve as a bed from now on. The Texan, whom she didn't get a name but really didn't care to, was along the same wall right next to her unfortunately, but she couldn't see where Richard went and sighed. He was her "closest" ally, and that was a very _generous_ term, at the moment and she would've at least tried to communicate through the thick walls about the _plan_. _Whatever it was, ugh._ The last person she wanted to talk to instead happened to share a wall with her and she groaned loudly.

Everyone watched as the doors slid in an upwards fashion, were shoved inside, and then brought down again isolating themselves away from the rest of the world.

Everything was silent. She decided to get comfortable, and finally gave in to her exhaustion, closed her eyes to rest...

"I'm still waiting for that apology girlie."

Fuck it. She wished she could blow them all half-to hell.

 _…_

 **AN:**

 **YEY another chapter finished! Still a slow build I know, but it will be a while until you see any of the cities from the games. BUT I do promise that other inFAMOUS characters will appear here shortly, my plot line depends on that!**

 ***SO here I might give away another spoiler, both for the games, and for the story. Its about how I view how conduit powers work from my intel.**

 **To my knowledge, I gathered that when a conduit has enough stress put upon them by what they perceive is a dangerous and/or life-threatening situation or figure, their powers latch on to something either familiar or apart of their existing environment.**

 **For example, Fetch in _First Light_ has flash-backs in her drug induced delirium about her parents selling her out to the DUP; they say that she hurt a girl, giving them their excuse. Might sound presumptuous at first, but I can guess that if she got into a fight with another girl, teenagers tend to hang out in flashy places, or pretty much everywhere in modern society, most places have access to neon in some form or another; so that its what her powers immediately attached themselves to, or in other terms, maybe imprinted on.**

 **SECOND example, is of course, Eugene. He was very emotionally attached to his video game in terms to escape from his miserable social conditions, and when later provoked maybe his powers chose what he considered the safest outlet in his life to defend himself from others he thought where dangerous.**

 **SOOO naturally MY character Aster, was pinned down on a snowy mountain bridge, with nothing to defend her from Hank's fiery fists. And what in nature best neutralizes fire kids? YOU GUESSED IT. It's _water_ and/or in my universe ice. BUT I didn't want her power to be only focused on that element alone in such **_boring_ **fashion, so later as we progress through the story, as you read in the prequel, her powers will mature into something far more confusing and bad ass. But she definitely WILL NOT be the _Avatar or a white lighter_ from Charmed. That shit is SOOO over used, and annoys the HELL OUT OF ME. Basic conduit powers people, _nothing more nothing less._**

 **And yes a LOT of other fics out there have explored the ice power in this universe because there was almost every element in Second Son BUT ICE (and flesh-eating-death-gaze), but to my hope, I can make my version stand apart from the others in a very unique way :)**

 **Long rant officially over.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and frankly putting up with my story! I have pretty much the next set of events drawn out in my head and ready to finally write them as the plot thickens! I'M SO EXCITED!**

 **I'll see y'all next time!**

 _ **TBC...**_


	8. Chapter VI : Preparing for Hell

**CHAPER 8! MY FAVORTIE NUMBER**

 **AN:**

 **Yep. Writing another author's note. Oh, and another chapter. I forgot.**

 **What's going on in this chapter you say? No idea.**

 ***Waves hand: this is not the chapter you are looking for.**

 **Jk it's good, _trust me._**

 **Saw _the Last Jedi_.**

 **It was awesome.**

 **I don't know what I'm doing. Enjoy.**

 **I own nothing**

 _Summary: "Those who escape hell, however, never talk about it, and nothing much bothers them after that."-Charles Bukowski She didn't think she would be anything other than ordinary, didn't think they would lock her up for being a conduit. She didn't think Augustine would train her to kill her own kind. But she definitely didn't expect to be dumped in Seattle at the feet of her next target._

 **Warning for use of language, a little bit of gore, and violence.**

* * *

 _"God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who **smiles all the time**." – Terry Pratchett, Good Omens_

* * *

Preparing for Hell

…

 ** _Three years before Seattle_**

…

Her neck and back hurt, no matter how she sat, laid down, or stood in her cell, and she did the most she could do to distract herself beyond her pain; a whole lot of thinking, and the occasional toss of a loose stone she found behind the toilet.

She skipped it across the corner of the wall and ceiling above her bench, before it would sail back to her to catch mid-air, or unluckily sometimes, on her head and/or stomach. The latter grumbled out its abuse as the rock stabbed her in the side this time, the pain reminding her that she hadn't ate for almost two days.

 _Has it really been two days? The car, the motel, highway, cargo container, and then here. Not accounting for the time I was out…_

 _It sounds about right, but I'm not even sure I can tell anymore._

She sighed softly and sat up to partially lean against the wall in defeat, almost tired of thinking about the last 72 hours or so, or even thinking in general. She was so tired, but since they dumped her in the cell, her insomnia stole away any chance of rest she may have gotten. She was initially grateful that her roommate next door kept mostly quiet for the first couple of hours, after she plainly ignored him. But every once and awhile, she could hear him mumbling to himself in his cell, and later throw a jab in her direction to coax her into conversation.

Before, she got more satisfaction from implementing this silent torture, but now, as embarrassing as it was she almost craved talking to another human being, even from him.

But like hell was she gonna start anything.

 _…_

A hour or so later, she had a little trouble keeping track, she lent her head against the door as she squatted on the floor, trying to hear anything that could give her an idea what was going on out in the hallway. First, all she could hear the tale-tell sound of boots marching past her door in one full rotation, before they fell silent. Later, on the turn back to their station she listened to one of the guards murmur something in an almost lewd tone, the second chuckling shortly after. Her guess was that she could only hear in a 10-15 foot radius from the door, but only slightly as she had to desperately try to make out what everyone was saying. The only thing she could CLEARLY hear was the ramblings of Mr. Sam Houston through her wall, each syllable grating on every one of her last nerves.

" _\- I should've called my wife like she wanted me too, might've gotten me out of this hell hole_ ," he crooned.

"I seriously doubt that," she spoke up, mostly out of spite.

"Well I'm just saying that those of us with families are bigger _liabilities_ to these folk," he said, "they'll have a lot more to worry about if they keep us locked up, and explaining away why we just up and disappeared!"

While that was partially true, the D.U.P. had almost complete control over the entire country, and could steal away whoever they pleased; their own _government_ practically fucked the public over and handed Brooke Augustine every single person caught in the crosshairs that lead straight to the slaughterhouse.

"They system doesn't _care_ about our circumstances', right now their only goal is to peddle the public horse shit about the bio-terrorist threat, and make them think that the tyranny of the D.U.P. is fair exchange for their livelihood and safety from the monsters."

She was miffed when he poked fun at her for sounding like the ' _BT she said she ain't'_ , and practically spat at him through the wall.

" _It doesn't take fucking super powers to see that there is something **terrible** happening in this country, and that we are doing **jack shit about it**_."

He was quiet for a while after that. She knew her language and opinion threw people off often enough, but honestly they had to wake up at some point. Coddling people wasn't her forte', and given the current situation, everyone here that slept through the damn alarm needed the fucking wake-up call.

…

" _I've got two little girls at home_ "

She just listened as he endlessly talked. It felt more… productive, if that was the right word to use, just to let him vent and process like she did during the first few hours of her capture. Talking was the best medicine according to some, she supposed, and he needed time to deal with the situation in his own way. In the back of her mind, a selfish part of her just wished _he could do it_ _faster_.

But truth-be-told, her rock was almost worn down into nonexistence, so she had nothing better to do than sit there on the receiving end of this stranger's woes.

"Hadn't talked to them for a while now, have always been on the road for business and it's too much of a bother waking them up when they're sleeping when I get a break." Then he continued, "I've always been a trucker, you see, and I could never stand still much less stay in the same place, but I try to make it up to them send'n them souvenirs and stuff for their birthdays and Christmas. Letters and photos when I can," then he fell quiet.

 _Oh shit,_ was she supposed to say something?

 _Um_.

"You're right. I mean about before."

 _Crap_.

"It would, uh, be a media storm if the DUPs started tearing families apart."

 _A total lie. They didn't care who they locked up_.

"You'll definitely be released, you weren't even originally with the other detainees."

 _This might be true_ , but at this point she was blabbering. _Sympathy and compassion weren't necessarily either of her strengths in any given situation._ She needed him distracted again and latched onto the most prevalent information he'd given her about himself.

"What wer- what are their names?"

He didn't seemed to be effected by her words from before, she gave an internal sigh of relief, and told her,

"We have our oldest Janey, eleven, and Morgan who's eight. They both depend on each other, which I guess is good, but they are as different as night and day. Janey takes after her mother in her looks with her brown hair n' green eyes, and looks after everyone as much as an eleven-year-old could. Morgan is a bit more like me with my blond hair, but she tends to get in trouble enough to be looked after constantly. Dunno who she got that from, but my wife Kate says she's a little wild like I was when we were younger." He paused for a bit and then accused, "Here I am pouring my heart out over here, and haven't heard a peep outta you."

Her eyes narrowed a bit at that.

"I never offered," she drawled out slowly.

"Seems a little fair, huh?" he tried, "Well, seeing as I haven't introduced myself like a good _gentile-man_ why don't I tell you my name, and you tell me something about yourself? That's usually how these things work right?"

"Never knew there was a rulebook."

"There's always a first as they say."

 _Ugh_. "Whatever."

"My name's _Kasey Jacobs_ , always got made fun of in school for it being too 'girly'." _Yeah right._

"Aster."

He whistled.

"Pretty name, were your parents' _hippies_ or something?" he prodded. "Mine were good ole' Christians', and were awfully close naming me Abraham or Peter. One of those disciple folks"

She didn't correct him, but couldn't help but crack a smile. The action wore her out more than she thought a smile ever could.

"Only child. My family wasn't all that close; we were mostly just stranger's living in the same house." She didn't want to divulge more than that, but she added "And no, they weren't hippies. But in all honestly I think they both had more than a few screws loose when they had me." _It certainly showed throughout the years._

"You gotta last name? Or are you franchised or something?"

She let out a sigh, "Just Aster. It doesn't matter in here, there's not anyone on the outside who would miss me anyways."

"Well, _just Aster_ , what brought the chosen one out on the long road anyway? Didn't they find something interesting in those _stuffy wizard boots_ of yours?" _Oh he was **dead**._

"It's a long story," she quipped.

"To my recollection, sweets, we've got nothing but time," he pointed out.

"God, could you be _anymore_ cliché?"

"Still waiting for that apology by the way." His words were choked, she could take a guess what it was, and that it was _definitely_ at her expense.

 _"And annoying."_

"Whenever I'm home, my kids tie me down to a chair to watch all of those Harry Potter movies from start to finish. I know more than I care to about all those damn houses, and don't get me started on the back stories, I weep about those in my dreams."

"Clearly not enough," sarcasm leaked out of her every pore.

"You're so easy to ruffle up young missy, you'll have to watch that attitude of yours around those soldiers."

"I'll take my chances!" she snapped out.

"Don't say I didn't warn ya."

" _Whatever_."

"So? How did a little girl like you end up with that kind of cash, and be stupid enough to get caught?"

 _Come on, really?_

She heaved a long sigh, she grudgingly admitted he was right, her temper would have to be tamed down a bit, though she idly thought she was tired enough to finally pass out on her bunk.

"I was taking an indefinite vacation from my old job as a waitress, _but_ _mostly my creepy boss_ , and basically had ALL the trouble that could possibly happen to me upon my leave," she took a deep breath, " _And as it happened_ , I just _came upon some cash at a very low point in my life_ when I ran out of options." The still fresh memories seemed untouched by her sudden bought of amnesia, " I was making my way to New Mexico when they set up the check point, and it only then occurred to me then that the money was probably stolen by a very well-known associate of the D.U.P."

 _She never went into detail about her encounter leading to the alley_.

"After that, I guess you saw pretty much everything worth to mention. I don't remember anything other than random flashes after I got onto that bus. The next thing I knew was in the air, surrounded by other people who could have had more reason to be imprisoned than me." She inwardly winced _, it sounded colder now that she said it aloud, than outside her own head._

His response seemed to be a mixture of frustration and comfort, "Well you don't have'ta worry about me exploding on anyone here; been normal all my life, doubt that'll ever change. And you shouldn't worry either, those freaky powers bio-terrorists' have seam to show up more in the younger generations anyhow."

She was slightly offended by his remark. _Geeze, how old do I look?_ The rest of his statement registered in her head, _those CONDUITS he's talking about are freaking kids! The nerve!_

 _You need to chill,_ she had to remind herself.

He was still jabbering on as she caught his next words

"But it didn't seem to matter for us right? Just poor fools in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said in attempt to make light of their situation.

 _…_

It wouldn't be until later, when she would understand why she started to sweat bullets at that exact moment.

 _…_

Later, from what she could hear, they were taking them out one by one, escorted by two guards from their cells to the station at the end of the hall. She couldn't establish an order when they took the next person, but they hadn't gotten to her or Kasey yet; both were closer to the stairwell, and mostly likely would be taken last if she had to guess.

She tried to talk with him some more, to see if he heard something she didn't when her cell door slid open.

When they got her out and walked her down the hall, she didn't see anyone else until they arrived at thick glass wall, framed in some real heavy duty bolts and a door that belonged in some syfy movie, with all of its flashing lights and pressurized locks lining the exterior.

She peered inside the room and watched as a female physician finished wrapping up the arm of another dark haired woman dressed in lighter attire than most of the others in her block- consisting of a grey tank top and some jeans, and some basic exercise footwear. Two other men in lab in surgical masks and lab coats stood over a counter against the wall; one was examining a blood sample displayed over a computer screen, and the other, she assumed was reading over a chart of some sort on his clip board, organizing bins full of people's belongings and waving a scanner over each individual item. The female doctor walked her patient over to a shelving unit, handed her something outside of Aster's field of vision, and was then escorted behind a shower curtain in the far left corner of the room. The pair of them reemerged a few seconds later- the prisoner was dressed in an orange D.U.P. detainee jumpsuit that hung lose in a few areas on her bony frame and a pair of dark mountain boots, shackled together at the ankles.

The guard in front of her knocked on the glass and gestured for the exchange, the doctor walked the woman over to the door and swiped a card at a scanner on the wall, and loud annoying buzz rang throughout the hall as the heavy door clicked open. Aster watched the locking mechanism secure around the hands of the other prisoner before her second escort pulled her into the room. The doctor guided her to a stool as the guards left with the other woman, the heavy door closing behind them with a loud hiss of air.

Unlike the other two workers, the woman's face was not covered by a surgical mask, showing off the laugh lines around her eyes and mouth on her apathetic face. She was shorter than her by a solid four inches to Aster's 5' 10'', and she had neatly pulled her light gold hair into a French braid at the base of her skull. She was older, and if Aster had to guess, between the age of 45 and 50 years in her face and skin, but she held a practiced calm about her from many years of service in her field of work. The men on the other side of the room where harder to see, but they were close in height and build that they didn't garner a lot of attention from her.

Still handcuffed Aster watched anxiously as the doctor rearranged her medical equipment and prepare an I.V. She jumped when something cold was applied to her inner left elbow, then watched in warped fascination as the needle made contact with her skin before sinking in with a small pinch; her blood quickly filled the small tube.

A few minutes passed, nothing but silence and what she assumed was a health physical, _though they never asked her any questions_. When they finished up wrapping her arm, the doctor stole her away behind the curtain, she assumed for privacy. The woman pulled out a vial of dark blue liquid and held it in front of her mouth. "Open and swallow," was all she said; Aster cracked opened her teeth and nearly gaged on the foul substance as it was poured down her throat. Afterwards, she was then promptly shoved into, for all intents and purposes: a gaudy orange body-bag, chained into boots two sizes bigger than her own feet, and lead out of thee room back down the hall.

There weren't any other prisoners to greet her like before outside the door, _was she the last one_? Without thinking she slowed down as they neared her cell, but was harshly pulled away as they walked her past her cell door; she cast a worried glance over her shoulder that did little to soothe her worries as they continued down the hallway.

 _…_

She was dizzy from trying to follow all the twists and turns they took, and eventually gave up on her mapping skills as they drug her around the cold concrete floors, with the occasional shove from a butt of a gun into her back. _Damn, are these guys serious? What could she possibly do in those heavier than hell cuffs?!_ She swore rather loudly when another hit landed between her shoulder blades- that fucking hurt!

 _…_

They rounded another corner, uncovering a small flight of stairs that lead below into a tunnel; before stopping at a pitch dark dead end. They guided her down, her tripping on the last step, reaching the bottom she growled as she looked around wondering where the hell she was at. Then out of nowhere, the wall a few feet in front of her opened up blinding her vison temporarily; she continued to stumble as her guards pushed her forward again once more.

Aster blinked her eyes in quick succession trying to get her robbed sight back, and miss stepped on the ledge they were leading her off of, resulting in a shrieking pile of orange surprise. She landed hard on her left arm, the heavy paper weights holding her hands hostage banged against her knee cap painfully, and accidentally hitting the humorous nerve in her elbow raking pain up her arm. She tried not to wet her eyes as they hauled her back onto her feet, dizzy from the fall but thankfully missing any head trauma, before leading her into the large room. She looked up at the ceilings and quietly commented to herself that they were ridiculously vaulted and after noted a large panel of glass that over looked the area. The room itself was again, covered from top to bottom in concrete, but had some unusual structures built around the room that looked to be cut right from the concrete itself, shaped into varying levels of platforms and bridges across it.

The guards took her to a fenced area around a wall of concrete that was at ground level in the middle of the _arena_ , with towers overlooking each corner. Once they got closer, she could just barely see other moving orange jumpsuits within its confines over the ledge. The gate had three layers before it reached the inside, the outermost being a fourteen-foot barbed wire fence. The Dupes stopped her in front of the first fence, and they all listened as one of the men on a watchtower gave them the go ahead, a loud buzz ringing out as the fence shook open. The walked towards the next gate, the space between vacant save for the occasional posted soldier. As they approached the interior gate, Aster felt goosebumps crawl up her arms as the wall completely overshadowed her. She looked up when she thought she heard a camera, and low-behold watched a cold metal box looming in her direction, its lenses re-focusing themselves for a better picture. She guessed after the light turned green above the camera, that they probably had taken her picture or this was another layer of security through visual identification.

The next 'gate' consisted of two slabs of jagged concrete- both could easily weigh over twenty tons each pointed at a very odd angle. They each slid down before disappearing into the ground, and her entourage marched forward into the compound. The other prisoners, some who looked even more physically distressed than her, laid behind a second chain link fence that stood about ten yards away from the wall, effectively enclosing the horde of bodies.

The two piss-ants that brought her here shut her inside with the rest, and she watched over her shoulder each gate automatically locking itself behind them as they passed through. She turned back and analyzed the crowd without moving to join them. There were stone tables set up that made up half of the space, some small groups here and there either sitting down leaning closer together, or standing on the other side huddled away from the fence. Most though, like her she theorized, preferred to keep their own company, looking overly suspicious at anyone remotely close to them. She couldn't blame them, their situation fucking sucked balls, she wasn't overly eager to talk with people on a normal day let alone to a complete stranger in prison. From what she could guess, there were about three times as much or more people here than when she first woke up on the plane. She didn't catch her name on somebody's lips, until she noticed Richard waving his arms about like a lunatic as he walked over to her; the chains on his ankles made it very awkward to watch.

All he could muster at the moment was "Hey." She didn't complain, existing in general was a very taxing activity to partake-in at the moment.

"Hey yourself," she responded. She looked around the crowd some more and asked, "Any idea why they brought us here?"

He just sighed and looked at the yellow suits stalking across the walkways from tower to tower.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

 _Hey, she had to try right?_

"Did they take you through the room at the end of the hall?" He asked.

"Yeah. I was wondering about that, like, they have _all this technology_ available to them but why haven't they scanned us yet? Why even _bother_ with the smoke and mirrors?" she asked incredulously, not even bothering to try lifting her forearms to express her confusion.

"After they had me and a couple of other guys exchange our clothes for uniforms, they brought us here. Maybe they're looking for something else?" She frowned more at his statement, what did he mean _other guys_? _Didn't they separate_ everyone _after they got off the elevator?_

"They put me in a cell next to that guy that cornered me on the elevator- after that they started taking us out one by one for a physical," she stated. "These doctors- they were looking at all of our stuff and scanning t-them, they took my blood and made me drink this blue stuff before I changed and left." She exhaled, "I didn't see anyone else after they took me from the room; they just brought me here."

"Do you feel any different?" He asked in concern.

She snorted, "No, I'm feeling just peachy."

Her stomach grumbled loudly in protest. He looked annoyed by her response, but bumped her and ordered her to follow him. "They gave some of us a meal a while ago, nothing much, just water, bread, and some collard greens; some of these guys were talking about saving some for later- just in case there isn't a next time."

He walked her over pass groups sitting on the benches, and after two fails involving threats and lots of yelling, they managed to convince an older woman who likely was in her sixties to share some of her left-overs for information. Aster sat down quickly, greedily tearing her food the best she could without the use of her hands, and later thanked the woman profusely when she insisted that Aster drink more of her water when her face began to turn purple on one occasion. She wasn't too involved with the conversation between Richard and the woman; the liquid did very little to soothe her aching throat or her dry lips, but helped just a tad with the headache mainly caused by her hunger and stress. Although feeling rejuvenated, Aster was caught off-guard but a sudden bought of tiredness, no doubt catching up with the last night's lack of sleep.

She hunted down a spot recently vacated by one of the end tables, abandoning Dick for the time being and rested her head on its cool surface. She felt as though all of her energy was pooling beneath the tables surface and was dragging her down with it. Exhaustion settled in, she wasn't sure where Richard had gone, but she was sure if he was sitting next to her she wouldn't have noticed. No one looked her way, she felt like she didn't exist and felt relived almost. She could just close her eyes- _she didn't have to worry…_

 ** _…_**

 _ **-Sometime in the near future-**_

 _ **...**_

 ** _She was being transported to another DUP site, the ground transport ironically feeling longer than the flight over, and escorted by a fresh squadron of Dupes for the culling, she mused._ But that can be saved for later I suppos _e, she thought as the vehicle roamed over a very bumpy terrain_. A mountain perhaps? _Minutes flew by (she passed the time being thrown about the car), until the truck slowed to a stop, her escorts readied their cargo (i.e. her) and the back doors swung open. They cleared the way for her, a pleasant change to say the least, and let her exit the vehicle on her own. She slowly walked forward, casually leaping down with the up most amount of grace she could muster in her chains, her bare feet landing on cool concrete. It didn't bother her as much as it used to._**

 ** _She was in a hanger of some sort, no surprise there- that's where most things where delivered to; anyway, she looked around and noted the HE was leaving his own transport surrounded by his personal guards, the florescent lights high overhead glinted off his lenses as he took them out of his coat pocket and placing them on his pointed face. This time he was wearing naval dress whites instead of his usual lab coat, buttons and medals lay on the coat's lapels, and his shoes were adequately shined to perfection. He placed his cover under his arm, both he and his party trekking their way across the loading deck. A large blast door opened on the other side of the hanger and the first thing she spotted was the color of vermilion, so vibrant against the monotone stone landscape. The color belonged to none other than the hardened face of Brooke Augustine, who met the_ esteemed _doctor in the middle of the platform. The rest of her entourage flanked her on all sides, surrounding the convoy;_**

 ** _Aster's stomach was practically spinning cartwheels at all this excitement!_**

 ** _"Is this her Commander? She doesn't look like much." The leader of the D.U.P. plainly stated, clearly unimpressed at Aster's seemingly feeble visage._ She didn't blame her, _she thought as she shifted her weight backward to look bigger than she was_ , she knew she looked like shit.**

 ** _"Trust me Miss, this 'girl' is quite more than she seems." He rebutted, his own excitement lighting his words._**

 ** _Augustine waved over the file in his hands, her steely eyes skimming through the laden details._**

 ** _"But is she enough? I need soldiers, not mad dogs."_**

 ** _"Don't you? Anyone can give you the soldiers you want Miss, but I offer something that the rest can't." He folded his arms behind his back, and stood back with faux patience, like a teacher about to let on secret to his pupil. Augustine, however reluctant, bought into whatever he was trying to sell._**

 ** _"And what might that be?"_**

 ** _His thin lips quirked slightly at the corners,_**

 ** _"A Hunter."_**

 ** _…_**

There was lots of shouting going about that jostled Aster from her slumber, and as she tried to sit up properly to find her bearings, several bodies knocked her torso into the jutting-edge of the table. She placed her palms firmly on its surface, and quickly swung her leg out so she could fully turn and sit in the opposite direction. Although, this position as it seemed, was even more disorienting than the first, as she had to dive backwards to avoid getting knocked over again by the wall of orange.

 _" **EVERYONE AGAINST THE WALL**."_

The command rang loud and clear, but Aster still dazed, tried looking for Richard, Kasey- or bloody hell even the old hag, by scooting herself to stand on the bench she napped on. They were too many of them pushed too closely together to find even one recognizable face.

Arms like shackles wrapped themselves around her waist, quickly spiriting her away from her previous perch; startled, she screamed and kicked as hard as she could. Aster was crudely knocked aside the head hard enough to be shortly blinded by flickering lights. As she was disoriented, they shoved her between two other still bodies; all she could taste was blood in her mouth.

The gate let out a loud thunk as a squadron of Dupes were lets through. The person to her right, shorter and male, was on the verge of falling unconscious from all the hyperventilating he was doing; the one to her right could be completely non-existent if it weren't for the occasional brush of their sleeve against her shoulder.

The troupe fell in front of the prisoners, their rifles slung over their shoulders at the ready when given the command. Behind them was a smaller circle of more labcoats- in its center a very thin man stepped forward. He held himself together differently than the others, more obviously indicating his higher rank, but Aster could feel the pin prick of fear when looking into his eyes. She saw nothing in those eyes. She felt her blood run cold when he passed her, pacing in front of them, soaking in their fear drenched faces, betraying absolutely nothing on his own. He didn't stop however, and only turned around and continued back the way he came. They all waited with baited breath as her leaned over to one of the officers,

" **Process them**."

The officer let out his orders, and the rest of the Dupes rushed the of terror flooded the air as they dragged the unwilling participants through the gates, some tried to flee but were immediately shot down increasing the rising hysteria.

Once those shots rang out, everything was total chaos.

Aster panicked as she ran through the crowd, stumbling and crashing into other detainees running to absolutely fucking nowhere. On the ground to her right she saw a guard take down the woman who offered her food with one fell swoop of his gun, and watched morbidly as she collapsed to the ground unconscious. Aster was soon drowned by the crushing horde as the Dupes wrangled them in like cattle, she decided to quickly fall to the floor and began to crawl on her hands and knees climbing under and between legs and feet (some too harshly kicking her in the face). She steered clear of the middle of the crowd as some fights began to break out between the prisoners themselves, wrestling in desperation to find their own way out, and tried to find an out in another direction. Another two shots rang in her ears and suddenly she was pummeled by a heavy body laying over her chest. Her chest heaved as she tried to push the wet, heavy weight off of her and her arms almost gave out in exhaustion from the exercise. _When she finally managed to lift its heavy shoulders with her bound hands, the neck lulled back loosely revealing the bloodied remains of Kasey Jacobs' face. Aster screamed._

…

 **AN:**

 **Hello everyone! It has been a little longer than I intended, but hopefully you weren't too disappointed.**

 **If any of you were confused the with the bold part towards the end, it was a flash forward of events to come- I just wanted to write a small snippet of when Aster truly sees Augustine for the first time (And inserting it when she was passed out seemed good enough), but I believe that the meeting was too small a part to write in its own chapter so I squeezed it in here. Maybe later on I'll find a proper place later on in the story, but that remains to be seen.**

 **On another note, we'll definitely start to see more of Aster's impact in the game storyline itself, so yippee for that I guess.**

 ** _AND THIS STORY WILL DEFINATLEY BE MOVING UP TO RATED M_. Lots and lots of more graphic encounters to come. Sorry for the gore people, I can't help it.**

 **A well-deserved thank you for everyone who has favorited/followed this story or left a review! It truly means a lot!**

 **Honorable mentions: _JessERichards, N7-SpaceHamsters, Totally NOT a Bio-Terrorist, Serius2812, Noxmad,_ and _SpiteSprite_. Thank you _again_ for your feedback and support!**

 ** _TBC_ …**


End file.
